Wireless News

Facebook mind-blowing statistics!

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:33:00 +0000

Facebook has 901 million and short of 99 million to reach 1 billion users. Wow that’s insanely huge. Just imagine the kind of social graph that facebook would own in the future. Its mobile users count is also increasing with currently 500 million users as off march 2012. Its first quarter revenue is $1.058 billion. Lot of interesting facts getting unraveled in the fourth amendment to its S-1 that it filed.

Instagram gets approximately 23 million of shares and $300 million cash. Based on $100 plus billion dollar valuation, instagram makes more than a billion dollar. That’s just amazing for a less than 2 year old startup.

Also another known/interesting fact is that mark Zukerber’s take home salary is gone drop from $500.000 thousand to just $1. Does it really matter!. He has billions of dollar so who cares.

Microsoft buys Skype, Still good news for Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:34:00 +0000

Contrary to the rumor mill about Facebook and Google negotiating a Skype deal, its Microsoft which walked away with the deal. According to Reuters, Microsoft has been Skype have been in the discussion for the past 6 weeks. Apparently even Cisco was in the race to buy Skype. With a close partnership with Microsoft, this is still a good deal. A partnership for providing voice and video service to all 600-700 million Facebook users should become a reality now.

Here are some interesting articles about the deal:

Om Malik has some interesting insights:
Why Microsoft is buying Skype for 8 billion
Kinect + Skype = Video Calling Magic
From Mary Jo Foley here
From Kara Swisher
Investors slam Microsoft Skype deal

Below is the email from CEO Steve Ballmer:

“Today we announced an agreement to acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company. You can see the full details here. Pending regulatory review, Tony Bates, CEO of Skype, will report to me as President of our newly formed Skype Division.
“This is a big step forward today for Microsoft and Skype, and one that has substantial benefits for our joint consumer and business customers. On its own, Skype is a powerful consumer brand with more than 170 million connected users, synonymous in many places around the world with voice and video communications. We will help them grow even stronger..
“By bringing together the best of Microsoft with the best of Skype, we will drive a new era in communications. We see a huge desire to do more with video, to make it easier for people to connect from multiple devices, to move from chat to phone to video and back in a way that is easy, natural, and human. We see with Kinect the power of using the biggest screen in the house – the living room TV screen – as the place where people connect with friends and families. We see with Windows Phone 7 the way communication moves from personal to professional in a blink of the eye. And we know that people want more connection and richer communication, across many devices and around the world.
“Together, Microsoft and Skype will deliver that kind of communication and connection. In the future, Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and we will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live, Messenger and other communities. I want to call out the success we have had with the introduction of Lync specifically and the value of connecting that to a consumer community of Skype. And we’ll continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.
“Today’s announcement underscores who we are as a company. We are ambitious and forward looking. We have big goals and aspirations. And when we look into the world and see opportunities to do more with technology, we’ll drive toward them and keep pushing. Sometimes we’ll build ourselves, as we’ve done most recently with Bing and Kinect.
“Sometimes we’ll partner or form an alliance to seize the moment, as we’ve done with Yahoo! and Nokia. And other times we’ll make an acquisition, as we’ve announced today – one that plays to both company’s strengths and opens new opportunities not available otherwise.

“Exciting times!
“Steve”

Facebook should Buy Skype not Google

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 05 May 2011 05:34:00 +0000

There is a strong rumor circulating in the blogosphere about Facebook and Google negotiating a buyout/partnership with Skype. Skype is planning an IPO sometimes second half of this year. Looks like these strategic discussions might jeopardize the IPO route. Maybe they are looking for a different exit than IPO. Either way it’s going to be good news for Skype investors. Now coming back to who should Skype align with? It makes lot of sense for Facebook to buy/partner with Skype instead of Google. Off course Google is better positioned in terms of who can milk more than half a billion users than Facebook. Beyond that I don’t see any synergy between Google and Skype.

Here is why I think it makes more sense for Facebook to acquire Skype:

• Enhance their messaging platform with support for Voice and Video powered by Skype. Off course facebook can develop its own Voice and Video infrastructure. Too me it’s a stretch. Instead by buying Skype they get instant access to VoIP/SMS/Video features
• Support Voice/Video will boost the messaging platform, which doesn’t seem to have gained much traction
• With Skype Acquisition they also get QIK Live streaming capabilities. That’s an added plus
• Instant Access to more than 500 million users. The chances of Skype users having Facebook account are high. There might be an overlap
• Facebook can really become a global operator providing Voice/SMS/Video/IM communication to all its users. Off course PSTN access will still be short coming, a partnership with one of the operator can offset this shortcoming
• A Facebook phone becomes a reality. Most of the operators are moving towards 4G/LTE, it’s a matter of time that all Voice calls will be carried via IP network. With a partnership with one of the access network, facebook’s ambitious phone becomes a reality. So constant monthly revenue for basic phone service becomes a reality. Voila!
• Patronize Innovation by opening up the Skype platform for developers (Telco 2.0 Platform). Something similar to Twilio, Voxeo etc
• Who said Facebook is only for Consumer market, with Skype acquisition they can venture into Enterprise market and become a threat to some of the incumbent Video/VoIP provider like Avaya, Cisco etc
• According to CDC Straw Poll 75% of the companies will adopt , Video Conferencing by 2012. Skype already supports consumer video conferencing which can be extended /enhanced for enterprise
• Voice conferencing is another big Enterprise feature. So armed with these powerful features, facebook can look beyond consumer market
• It makes sense to have different revenue stream instead of relying only on advertisements
• Everybody wants a piece of Facebooks social graph including operators. T-Mobiles recently launched Bobsled, a one touch calling within Facebook. In fact Facebook can do a better job than Third Party service providers.

Here is why I think it doesn’t make sense for Skype to go with Google:

• Google already has its own VoIP client (Google Talk), which supports SMS/Voice/Video. They recently launched video calling for android .
• Has partnership with sprint for Google Voice. So they are ahead of the curve in terms to infrastructure and partnership
• Except for the number of users they get access to most of the technology and infrastructure becomes redundant. Iam not discounting the P2P arch of Skype. That’s a big asset to own. P2P has its own issues with respect to Lawful Intercept and security to name a few.
• Google is already competing with Skype. It would have made sense if Skype was a small player where in Google could have acquired them and killed the product. That’s not the case here. Skype is the biggest Global VoIP player in the market.
• They have in-house VoIP technical expertise inherited with the acquisition of Grand Central and Gizmo.

I would love to see a Facebook Skype acquisition/partnership. Let me know what you folks think.

3Jam Group Messaging startup Acquired or Fire Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Tue, 03 May 2011 05:41:00 +0000

Well not sure if 3Jam is the first victim of Group Messaging war. From their website it looks like they have been purchased. There is no news about the company that bought 3Jam. It just says that the intellectual property has been purchased . Being in the startup industry for so long “IPR” buyout is not a very positive exit. 3JAM was one of the early bird in Group Messaging space. Too me it looks like a fire sale. I had written about 3Jam way back in 2007. According to Forbes blog , the Ceo of the company has been hired as a senior product manager at Skype. Does it mean 3Jam was acquired by Skype?

Finding little traction in the Group Messaging space, 3Jam tried getting into different product direction. In fact they even tried imitating Google Voice type features . Iam not sure how many subscribers were using 3Jam Google Voice type feature. I doubt it was anything significant.

The Group Messaging space has been gaining lot of momentum. There are so many companies( GroupMe, Beluga, FastSociety, WhatsApp, Kik, Yobongo, Disco, TextPlus etc) going after the big billion dollar SMS/MMS market. These are all new crop of companies that started just a year back. Most of these companies have been well funded and are seeing good traction. Even Facebook is betting big in the Messaging space. They recently acquired Beluga, another Group Messaging startup. But group messaging is not something new that has been invented recently. There were lot of Group Messaging companies that started( 3Jam, Peekamo, Moblabber, Swarmteams, Zemble, Joopz etc) in 2005-2007 timeframe with little or no success. What changed now? I guess back then it was all about regular mobile handset with clunky/awful messaging user interface. All that changed after the launch of iPhone and the Androids. The UI on these phones are very intuitive and easy to use. Also the App store business model changed the way people communicate with each other. You can send and receive SMS/MMS messages using some of these apps without paying a penny to the operator provided you have a data package. There is a fundamental shift in the way people communicate with each other.

Here is the message posted on 3Jam website:

May 2, 2011
Friends,
We are happy to announce that the intellectual property underlying 3jam's products and services have been purchased.
Since launching 3jam in 2006, we've appreciated all of the enthusiasm of our users, partners, and investors who have supported our service and helped us grow to nearly four million users globally!
We are proud to be one of the first companies to launch group messaging and a virtual number product that has enabled people to bring their landline and wireless numbers into the cloud. 3jam has been committed to providing innovative and efficient ways for people to communicate, and we are looking forward to seeing these technologies further developed and delivered in a new strategic direction.
3jam's web site and service will be shut down in the coming months, with details on that transition plan to be provided at a later date. Please stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Enlai Chu
CEO
3jam, Inc.

Stay tuned for more juicy details.

Beware Apple spying your location

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:11:00 +0000

If you own an iPhone or Ipad then its very likely that Apple might know the details of all the places you have visited. It might sound scary but it’s true. Today at where 2.0, the latest discovery was made public. Apparently the recorded positions are stored into a hidden file called “consolidated.db”. The file contains latitude-longitude coordinates along with a timestamp. What’s alarming is that this file is unencrypted and unprotected and can be accessed by any application. So if an app developer is aware of this file then he has access to very critical information. This information can be used for various location based research/analysis.

Iam sure consumers will be appalled to know that Apple is recording there location. But is there anything that they can do, well looks like not much luck since Apple has clearly stated that they have rights to capture location information in the terms and conditions. Snippet below.

Location-Based Services

To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.

Some location-based services offered by Apple, such as the MobileMe “Find My iPhone” feature, require your personal information for the feature to work.

Facebook gets Voice powered by T-Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:56:00 +0000

Well iam back, it’s been such a long time since I updated this blog. Professional and personal commitments kept me away from updating the blog. Sincere apologies to all the folks who had sent me mails requesting to start blogging again. Well Iam back. I guess year 2011 is turning out be to exciting times for startups. BTW, I have changed my blog address from latestgeeknews to 4Gwireless for all the good reasons. More on that later.

Coming back to the hot news that hit the stand today, T-Mobile and Vivox launched one touch- calling within Facebook called Bobsled. The new application provides 500 million Facebook users to call each other without worrying about knowing each other’s phone number. Bobsled is not the first application to provide this type of service. Jajah, Vonage and others have launched similar service earlier. In fact Skype and Facebook were rumored to be working closely to bring Voice and SMS integration. Also couple of months back there were rumors about Facebook testing its own Voice Chat.

So what does Bobsled offer, for now using Bobsled app Facebook users can place voice calls to all their friends through the Facebook chat with just one click. The application eliminates the need for dialing/remembering the phone number. Simply clicking the friends name will start the conversation. So with this app, users can call any of their across the globe for free. In addition to voice calling, the application will let you leave a voice message to your friends and family when they are not available. A cute little feature to leave happy birthday, anniversary etc voice greetings and post the greeting on friend’s wall for all to hear.

The initial feature set of Bobsled is limited. However in the near future, T-Mobile plans to unveil Video chat, call termination to mobile and landline and offer applications on smartphones and tablets across various mobile platforms.

Though we have seen similar services on Facebook, this one is big and important because it’s coming from an operator. What this means is that Operators are getting serious about Social Integration, and Bobsled app is a great leap forward in that direction. I was skeptical about voice calling widgets on Facebook few years back, iam thinking positive this time. I still root for Video Chat and am sure Facebook is working on it as I write this article.

Are we heading towards a new Bubble?

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Two big titans( John Doerr and Fred Wilson) of Venture Capitalists industry discuss the current state of startups and whether we are heading towards Bubble or Boom. Check out the video below.

Finally Google Voice app approved by Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:57:00 +0000

Here you go guys, Apple finally approved Google Voice iPhone application. This is definitely a big leap forward for Apple and Google. Earlier Apple had banned Google Voice application citing various reasons. As we all know FCC got involved in the whole fiasco and it took so long for Apple to approve the app. This is going to be a big blow to operator. Now I can use Google Voice App to send and receive SMS message for free. Yeh that’s a killer deal.

It took almost 16 months for Apple to approve this app. Things got murkier after the FCC got involved. We got to know lot more about Apple’s relationship with AT&T and each other. Initially AT&T was blamed for blocking Google Voice App as it was eating into their SMS and voice revenue. However there were other theories that surfaced during the course of time. Initial Apple’s stance was that Google Voice app was exact replica of its own built-in calling system.

Following features are provided by the Google Voice iPhone App:
• Cheap rates for international calls
• Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
• Voicemail transcription
• Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls
With the Push Notification enabled, the app will notify whenever there is a new text message or Voice mail.

With both the service and app are free. What more can anyone ask for. So just go ahead and download the app and enjoy the free ride until it lasts.

About Steve Jobs from his Boss

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:02:00 +0000

Its been a long time since I wrote anything about Steve Jobs. So here you go, Check out this article, It’s an insight about Steve Jobs from his old Boss.

Apple extends its Video calling to Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Today Apple announced the public beta of FaceTime for Mac, a new application using which Mac users can video call iPhone, iPod touch and Mac users. So looks like Apple is pretty serious about its Video calling service “FaceTime”. I guess Facetime has brought in some momentum to the consumer Video calling service. Though video calling was not something new that Apple invented, it existed even before Apple ventured into it. However FaceTime literally gave a facelift to consumer video calling service. If Apple can support Group Video calling, then it’s a perfect vehicle to target enterprise segment. Beware Skype, Cisco, Logitech and slew of other companies operating in enterprise video market.

Here is what Steve Jobs has to say about FaceTime:

“FaceTime makes video calling to or from mobile devices easy for the first time,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve sold more than 19 million FaceTime-ready iPhone 4 and iPod touch devices in the past four months, and now those users can make FaceTime calls with tens of millions of Mac users.”

Though Apple claims that FaceTime uses standard protocols, it is yet to publish any documents supporting the statement. Any inter-op with Facetime will open up huge opportunity for developers and other video service providers. Unless Apple sees a huge potential in inter-op, I doubt they will share all the technical information about Facetime.

Skype Journal compares FaceTime and Skype. Looks like Skype beats Apple with respect to quality and additional features. Dan York has hands on information about FaceTime on Mac.

Teens Prefer SMS, Hate calling

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:23:00 +0000

According to Nielsen report Teens prefer Texting than calling. The amount of text message teens send is unbeleivable. They send and receive on average 3,339 SMS texts a month. So looks like the most popular activity with teens are sending/receiving text messages. Infact female teens sends and recive an average of 4,050 texts per month. Compared to SMS texting, Voice usage is very low among teens. So texting activity has taken precedence over voice.

Some highlights of the news:

• 94% of teen mobile subscribers self-identify as advanced data users, turning to their cellphones for messaging, internet, multimedia, gaming, and other activities like downloads.
• While teen usage does not reach levels of activity seen by young adults, it has increased substantially versus Q2 last year, from 14 MB to 62 MB.
• This fourfold increase in data usage is the largest jump among all age groups.
• Much of this boost is led by males, who are more gadget-savvy and consume 75 MB of data, versus 17 MB in Q2 last year. Teen females use about 53 MB of data, compared to 11 MB a year ago.
• Software downloads among teen subscribers who use apps enjoyed a solid 12% increase in activity versus last year, from 26% to 38%. This includes popular apps such as Facebook, Pandora or YouTube. Usage of the mobile web has also surpassed activity on pre-installed games, ringtone downloads and instant messaging, too. Other mobile activities like mail and text alerts have also seen significant growth.

LightSquared LTE plans are gaining momentum

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:26:00 +0000

With the recent inflow of $850 million debt, LightSquared announced vendor partners who will provide network, chip and devices for its ambitious wholesale LTE launch . The overall LTE network will be constructed, operated and maintained by Nokia Siemens Networks. This is a huge deal for NSN. The total budget to build, operate and maintain is around $7-8 billion dollars. The overall network will consist of 40,000 base stations and cover 92 percent of the US population by 2015.

The Chipset and devices will be provided by Qualcomm and Nokia Corp respectively. With CDMA almost nearing its death, Qualcomm must be betting big on LTE chipsets. Most of the folks still don’t believe this is gone happen, and feel it’s just hogwash and will never see the light of the day. Iam cautious in my opinion. It’s an ambitious plan. Building a network from scratch is not a trivial task. For now, I will just say Kudos to the team and wish they succeed.

Verizon gearing up for iPhone launch next year

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 03:18:00 +0000

As speculated earlier, According to Wall street journal, Apple is making a CDMA version of iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year. So this means an end to the exclusivity with AT&T, and a huge blow to AT&T. Too me its no brainer decision. If Apple stays with AT&T, they are going to loose big-time to Android. This should be one of the compelling reasons why Apple should be spreading their wings across multiple operators. Launching with Verizon is going to be a big leap for Apple in terms of volume and revenue. The plan is to begin mass production of new iPhones by end of the year, and release the same in the first quarter of 2011. The new iPhone will resemble the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T.

Some interesting tidbits from the article:

At a press conference Wednesday, Verizon Communications Inc. President Lowell McAdam declined to comment on whether his company would soon sell an iPhone. "At some point our business interests are going to align," he said, referring to Apple. "I fully expect it, but I don't have anything to say."

A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal in March reported on Apple's plans to build an iPhone that works on code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology used by carriers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.

Toni Sacconaghi, a Sanford Bernstein analyst, estimates Verizon could add more than 10 million U.S. iPhone customers, adding it could help stem the rapid adoption of devices that run Android.

According to ComScore, as of August 2010, AT&T has 38% of the smartphone share while Verizon holds 26.8%. A total of 68.7% of AT&T smartphones users are iPhone. As you can see clearly, a majority of AT&T smartphone market is of iPhone. Launching iPhone on its network will give Verizon a big boost in its smartphone market and also increase the overall market share. It will be a WIN-WIN for both Verizon and Apple.

Verizon launching iPhone has been in the news for quite sometime now. There’s no Smoke without fire. Iam more than positive that this is credible news and would be surprised if Verizon doesn’t launch iPhone next year.

Android a serious threat to iPhone and RIM

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:52:00 +0000

This news should come as a shocker to Apple and RIM folks. According to Nielsen , Android is now the most popular operating system among people who bought a Smartphone in the past six months. Blackberry RIM and Apple iOS are fighting each other for the second spot. In the past six months ending August 10, Android accounts for 32 percent of the smart phones while iPhone accounted for 25 percent and Blackberry 26 percent.

Among all smartphone owners, RIM still rules the roost with a total market share of 31%. Apples iPhone comes second with 28% followed by Android with 19%. Surprisingly Nokia is no where in the list.

Cisco should buy Skype not Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Facebook and Skype are planning a deep integration partnership, which will allow its users to communicate with each other using voice chat or sms messaging. Sounds like an audacious plan. For the most part this is definitely good news to FB users. So Facebook has started adding value to its platform by providing communication utilities to its users. The strategy of Facebook is not to reinvent the wheel and instead use one of the existing products that can cater its users. It’s a smart move. Building a communication platform for 500 million users is not a trivial task. Also, Skype is the best when it comes to Internet Telephony. So the marriage is perfect.

Skype currently has more than 560 million registered users. So with facebook counting more than 500 million users, we are talking about a total of more than billion users. Off course most of the users could be registered on both Skype and Facebook. Apart from Voice and messaging, Skype brings the video chat, which is gaining momentum. Thanks to Apples FaceTime. Both these companies are very aggressively positioning themselves as the next generation communication and messaging platform.

So does it mean Facebook should buy Skype as Om suggest? I don’t think it makes sense. The first question I would ask anyone suggesting Facebook to buy Skype is-
How many FB users currently communicate to each other using Voice Chat. We all know what happened to some of the VoIP applications on Facebook who tried the same communication game and turned out to be a disaster. Even Skype had its own Skypeme app on Facebook, which didn't do well either. Some startups even closed shop. Even if FB users use Voice Communication, the call should be delivered via SkypeOut or SkypeIn in order for Facebook to make any money. Now this is a big stretch in my opinion. If its purely a VoIP call, there is no money.

Instead of Facebook buying Skype, I would still bet big on Cisco buying Skype. I think Skype fits well in the Unified communication arena. With Cisco very aggressive in the Unified Communication space, this makes a killer combo. Also Cisco doesn’t need to fight hard to enter the communication space, with Skype acquisition; they will have instant access to 560 million users. And Skype Video will blend very well with the telepresence and other UC related Video communication.

Free VoIP calling for iPod touch users

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:39:00 +0000

Pinger, the company behind textfree, a very popular application for iPhone and iPod Touch is venturing into Voice area by providing Free Voice calls for iPod touch users . The company already supports ad based text messages and Users have already sent more than 4 billion text messages using pinger application. The VoIP application will work on both 3G and Wi-Fi network. Pinger provides its user a unique phone number and has distributed 1.7 million phone numbers so far. Unlike text messaging, Voice calling will have a monthly cap and user needs to buy additional credit when they run out of the monthly cap.

It looks like a good deal for iPod touch users. However what is not clear is the monthly free minutes, and the per minute charge after the monthly free minutes is exhausted. At least these guys understand that giving free unlimited minutes is not gone fly from business standpoint. Many players tried free calling model and shutdown the shop. I’m not sure why advertisement is not considered for free calling instead of charging for the extra minutes. Getting a unique number for iPod and free minutes are big pluses of this application. However, Number of free minutes, call quality and per minute charge will determine the success of this app.

MetroPCS first operator to launch LTE

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 05:05:00 +0000

Its MetroPCS and not Verizon to be the first operator to commercially launch LTE service in United States. Today they officially launched LTE service in Las Vegas. The service offers voice, text and 4G Web access starting as low as $55 per month including taxes and regulatory fees. Add another $5 for unlimited on-demand video streaming from 14 networks. Also they are offering first commercially available 4G LTE enabled handset, the Samsung Craft. Pretty impressive for a small operator to aggressively pursue LTE and launch as promised. Metro PCS is very aggressive in the prepaid market and doing pretty good in this segment.

Here are some of the highlights of the launch:
MetroPCS is introducing many new applications and features that take advantage of its 4G LTE network, including:
• MetroSTUDIOSM, powered by RealNetworks, is available on the $60 service plan. MetroSTUDIO is a new source of multimedia content, including access to full-track downloads, ringtones and ring-back tones, as well as premium video content from NBC Universal, Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Univision, available on-demand and on-the-go from one easy-to-use application.
• A new social networking and instant messaging aggregation application, which harnesses notifications, friends and content from the Facebook, MySpace and Twitter social networks and AIM, MSN and Yahoo! IM clients into a single interface that consumers can access with one click.
• Upgraded MetroNavigator® feature with the addition of voice-activated GPS and turn-by-turn directions.

MetroPCS is initially offering the Samsung Craft in Las Vegas metropolitan area stores and online for $299, after $50 instant rebate, plus tax, while supplies last. As the world’s first commercially available multi-mode 4G LTE/CDMA handset, the Samsung Craft was created with Web and multimedia content in mind, delivering a stunning visual experience.
The device offers:
• Incredible clarity and rich color for viewing crystal-clear multimedia and video images with its 3.3 inch AMOLED (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen.
• A 2GB microSD card preloaded with Paramount Pictures’ hit movie “Star Trek.”
• A combination touch screen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and Samsung’s TouchWiz™ user interface to surf and text message with whichever input format users prefer.
• A 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and camcorder to capture images that can be shared while on the go on MetroPCS’ fast 4G network.
• Wi-Fi capability.

Wireless call quality, Verizon leads, AT&T trails

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:02:00 +0000

According to J.D Power and Associates Report , Verizon and Sprint lead the pack with respect to call quality. AT&T lags in most of the regions. So the issues are just piling up for AT&T. One of the biggest plus for AT&T is the exclusivity of iPhone, and iam sure AT&T will fight tooth and nail to keep it intact. Loosing exclusivity on iPhone is going to be a very bad news for AT&T. With such a bad call quality rating, it will be a hard sell for them to keep the subscribers intact loosing iPhone. Verizon on the other hand is sitting pretty with a good network, and call quality very good in most of the regions except for some. J.D Power sites that one of main reason subscriber will switch carrier is dropped calls. So with Verizon iPhone launch rumor, they can surely expect lot of disgruntled AT&T subscriber switching over to Verizon.

I think it makes sense for both Apple and Verizon. Apple needs to find new avenues to sell its flagship product. With android catching up fast, launching iPhone with more operators is the best bet for Apple.

Below is call quality rating for different regions. The call quality rating was calculated based on dropped calls, failed call connection on the first try, voice distortion, echoes; no immediate voicemail notification and no immediate text message notification.

Sears online shopping experience, fraudulent

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:24:00 +0000

Sorry folks this article is not about technology but it’s a personal rant about my online shopping experience with sears. It was one of my worst shopping experience and iam so disappointed by sears online shopping. I would never recommend anyone shopping online with sears. I don’t think sears understand what online shopping customer satisfaction is. In fact after dealing with them for the past three days I kind of felt that they don’t really care for their customers. Seriously sears should take lessons from Amazon or any other online vendor who value their customers. So this labor day I was looking for a good canon DSLR to fulfill my photography passion and bumped into the following link.The price of this canon( Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera with Canon EF 24-105mm IS lens) was way too low and an awesome deal. Initially I was a little skeptical. So I called up sears customer service, and the lady assured me that the vendor is authentic and that sears does a lot of background check before they allow anyone to sell their product on sears website. So fine. I believed her, went ahead and ordered this camera. Though she assured me about the vendor and all that, what I didn’t realize was that she had no clue about the third party vendor. She did not even do a basic vendor check. Why? Because the contact number for seller was invalid and the company was using Gmail account. Something fishy.

So just out of curiosity I sent a mail to the vendors(The electronics limited) contact email id (mitch.petipren@gmail.com) asking him about the details of the camera and the response I got was-

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR is brand new and also comes with Canon EF 24-105mm IS lens, we have packaged the item already for shipment but unfortunately we were unable to proceed your specified payment method because our merchant is down. So we advise you proceed to make payment through Western union money transfer and send money to the information below.

Name: Latanyia Bennett
City: Baton Rouge
State: Louisiana
Country: USA
Zip code: 70802

Immediately after the transfer is made kindly get back to me with the following details.
Sender full name :
MTCN number
Amount sent :
Country :

We shall proceed to send out your order and get back to you with the tracking number.

Mitch

The above mail scared the shit out of me and got me thinking. I started getting a bad feeling. Googled for more info on the deal and found some other folks also going through the same shit on slickdeals forum .This is when it dawned on me that the whole thing was a SCAM!. In addition, all the folks who bought the camera got a order shipment confirmation with the same bogus tracking number for UPS(ZA7894988597890).

After I got to know it’s a SCAM. I called up sears customer service rep and the first person I talked to said iam being impatient and need to wait for couple of more days to get the camera delivered. What a bummer. So I called up again, and this time I asked for the supervisor. I explained the details to supervisor and she agreed that it seems fishy. Finally someone understood. After all this, the problem did not get resolved. All I heard is that “we will get back to you after our investigation” and nothing happened for another 24 hours. So I called up the sears customer service today and they asked me to talk to my credit card company. That’s about it.

Also what’s disgusting about this whole fiasco is that even after they knew that vendor is a fraud, the link to the product is still live on sears website, and you can purchase the camera by checking out. So as we speak there are folks who may get fooled by this offer. In fact while writing this article, I was chatting with a sears online rep and she had no clue that the product she was trying to sell me again was a SCAM.

It was such a bad experience for me. I will never ever buy anything from sears and would not recommend anyone either. In short, I feel like cheated by sears and not by “The electronics limited”. I purchased the camera based on sears customer service promise and sears brand. (BTW, sears rep who sold the camera to me would not reply to my mails even after repeated attempt.) For all the shit I went through, I would have been happy if sears had accepted that it was there fault and provided some alternatives to all customers. Alas! That never happened. Sears management should take responsibility to have let a fraud use their website to cheat customers like me.

After RIM, its Skype and Google's turn to open up

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:23:00 +0000

RIM averted a ban by Indian government
by providing an interim solution that India authorities will test for another 60 days before making any further decision. Earlier India Government had warned RIM of possible shutdown if they don’t provide access to encrypted email and instant messages. Not much has been disclosed about the possible solution to intercept messages. There are even reports of installing servers locally in India for Indian Authorities to have easy access. Some are skeptical about the whole fiasco and even call this as a farce between RIM and Indian Authorities .

So with the interim solution from RIM, it looks like a face saving deal for both RIM and Indian government. With a partial victory over RIM, Indian authorities are targeting Skype and Google to open up their end-to-end secure communication for lawful intercept. Now this is where it gets interesting. Iam not sure how Skype is going to support Lawful intercept of their calls and messages. One of the reasons being that Skype is a P2P protocol and there are no servers involved between users for communication. Iam not even sure if Skype supports Lawful intercept standards. They have been having problems with law enforcement agencies for years now and don’t think there is a solution. Indian government is pushing these companies to install local servers for authorities to have easy access. Nokia plans to setup servers in India by November for its enterprise email services.

For RIM, building its own Blackberry data center within the country would cost tens of millions of dollars. Not sure if this is something RIM will consider in future given that the Mobile Smartphone market in India is gone explode. Currently RIM has roughly around 1 million blackberry users and that might change in future. Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts predicts that Indian Smartphone market will grow to 40 million by the end of 2015.

It would be interesting to hear what Skype has to say now that their IPO is imminent. Will they Comply like others Or not give a rat’s ass to Indian Authorities?

Google Voice going mainstream with Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:39:00 +0000

Google’s getting pretty serious about Voice business and is moving aggressively in this direction. Today they unveiled a new feature for Gmail using which users can call any phone number in USA and Canada free of charge. Yes u heard it right, its free. However the free calls will last only until end of this year. This new service will put Google into direct competition with Skype, the most popular internet telephony company. In fact they have some good pricing for international calling. According to some sources, Google is using the money they make from international calling to provide free calls to USA and Canada.

The service doesn’t need you to install a new desktop client. All you need to do is install a voice and video plug-in to the browser and voila u can make and receive calls for free. Google says the new service would work well for people in a spot with poor cell phone reception or for those making a quick call from their desk.

Another interesting news to share is the Google Voice Phone booths that Google plans to install in Airports and Universities. Now this gets interesting and has not been tried by any of the other internet telephony folks. With so much cash in bank, this might not be a big deal for Google. Also this pushes the Google Voice feature to more audience and serves as a marketing tool. Apparently Google wants more user to try out the Google Voice feature and its quality. If the call is free, iam sure there will be tones of folks who would love to use this booth.

As Om points out, launching this feature with Gmail has such a huge impact for various different reasons. So it’s a sort of one place for all communication. I think this is on of the features Facebook should be thinking off to support in future. From a user standpoint, It makes so much sense to have all communication (IM, Voice, Video, SMS, Chat, Calender, Mail etc) happening in one place instead of opening multiple apps/windows/browser etc.

So looks like Skype has got a serious competitor in Google Voice. Its not only Skype that should be worried about Google Voice, even the Telco operators should take this threat from Google Voice seriously. So until it lasts, just enjoy the free calls.

India joins the bandwagon to ban RIM

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:17:00 +0000

India has joined the bandwagon to ban Research In Motion’s Blackberry Smartphone unless it gives the key to decode encrypted email and messages. In fact India issued an ultimatum today that if they don’t get the code by end of Aug, they will ban RIM Blackberry phone. The BlackBerry-to-Blackberry messenger and the BES, which provides corporate intra-email services are the ones that India wants the key to decrypt. Other services provided by Blackberry like Voice, SMS and BIS already comply with the law enforcement agency. Unlike other Smartphone vendors, RIM operates its own network of servers to provide corporate email and messaging. The high security provided for Corporate email is one of the reasons why RIM is corporate’s favorite Smartphone. Will they give-up that to please Indian Government? Looks like they may succumb to the pressure as they did with Saudi Arabia government.

According to RIM, the security architecture for its enterprise customers is based on a symmetric key system where in the key is generated and owned by the customer. So their argument is that it can’t be provided since users own the key. However, based on pressure from Saudi Arabia, they did agree to handover the codes in a last-ditch effort to stop getting banned. So Indian officials are hopeful they will do the same thing with them. With the recent terror attacks and the new threat looming every now and then, Law enforcement agency are very serious about intercepting these communication devices.

For RIM, this is going to be a very critical decision to make. Any compromise could jeopardize its appeal to corporate users and politicians alike. We all know U.S President Barack Obama’s favorite gadget is Blackberry. So any changes in their security strategy would have bigger impact. Saying no to these countries would limit its ambition to grow beyond North America. In addition, competitors are eating into RIM’s dominant share of Smartphone. Some of the corporate users are embracing iPhone, which was introduced as a cool gadget for kids.

I personally feel RIM should give access to their encrypted message if Indian authorities feel that they have legitimate information about threats. Iam assuming the messages will not be intercepted for all Users and it will be on case by case basis based on user’s background. How users will be picked for interception is beyond my imagination. Last time i got lot of hate mails when i said its OK to intercept any communication as long as it is done in the interest of the country. I don't approve privacy intrusion, but at the same time if its abused by some folks then it needs to be addressed.

Google says Goodbye to Wave

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:34:00 +0000

Today Google made a big decision. Its bidding Goodbye to Google wave, the messaging 2.0 product that they unveiled with much fanfare . Somehow I had this feeling that the product was geekier in nature and complicated for average users. So the news is good and bad for Google. Good that they were quick to realize that the product did not attract enough users and canned it. Bad that it had to let go one of its ambitious project.

Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. In addition, we will work on tools so that users can easily “liberate” their content from Wave.

Wave has taught us a lot, and we are proud of the team for the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of computer science. We are excited about what they will develop next as we continue to create innovations with the potential to advance technology and the wider web.

Is Google struggling to find a new cash cow other then the search engine, which is their main source of revenue. Though Google has so many different products, none of them have made any significant contribution to the company's revenue stream.

Vonage’s new App targets Facebook friends

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:28:00 +0000

Vonage, the VoIP Company is trying to figure out new avenues to grow its revenue. In the process the company is launching a new app for Android and iOS that lets users make free calls to Facebook friends over 3G and Wi-Fi. Finally a bigger VoIP player is embracing the social networking power. With this, Vonage can reach all the 500 million face book users. So what this means is that if your Facebook friends have smart phones then you can call them for free. What’s interesting about the service is that you don’t have to remember the phone numbers of your Facebook contacts to talk. Though the concept of making call via 3G or Wi-Fi is not new, providing voice services to social networking friends via Smartphone is a new twist.

Despite the fact that Vonage is one of the biggest VoIP provider for more than a decade, it is still struggling to maintain a strong growth in the failing Voice market. With the introduction of free International calling via its routers that features a standard telephone socket, Vonage has gained some ground. Skype is one of biggest competitor for Vonage and with more than 550 million users, Vonage still looks miniscule. Off course not all Skype users are paid users. So all these new initiative might give Vonage some leading edge for competition.

“The Vonage Mobile app for Facebook is a tangible example of our commitment to deliver extraordinary value and a better communications experience for individuals and their social networks, across broadband-enabled devices, around the world,” said Marc Lefar, Chief Executive Officer of Vonage Holdings Corp. “This is just the start. In the future we will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and messaging services that change the way people communicate.”

Below is more info on how Vonage Mobile Application for Facebook work?
The Vonage Mobile application is simple. It’s simple to download, and so simple to use that we have eliminated the need for dialing altogether. To get started, the user:
• Downloads the app from the iTunes Store, Android Market, the Vonage fan page on Facebook or vonage.com/talkfree.
• Enters Facebook ID and password (one time only).
• Views Facebook contacts after they are automatically loaded. They’ll be grouped by friends who can be called for free and friends available for instant messaging on Facebook. A Vonage logo will appear next to the names of friends who have downloaded the app.
• Invites additional Facebook friends to get the app at the Vonage Fan Page on Facebook or vonage.com/talkfree.
• Touches a friend’s name from the Call Free list to make a free call anywhere in the world; no need to be online.
• Rings the phone for incoming calls, even if the application is closed.

Check out the video below:

LightSquared LTE ambition, will it see the light?

noreply@blogger.com (Ravi Shankar) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:43:00 +0000

Harbinger Capital Partner, a New York private equity firm plans to build an open Multibillion dollar wholesale 4G wireless network that will cover most of the USA by 2015. Just couple of days back the company launched the new venture, called LightSquared. According to industry sources, the overall cost to build the entire network will be between $6-10 billion. From a funding standpoint, Harbinger has secured $1.75 billion in debt and equity financing . The new financing adds to the $2.9 billion already contributed to LightSqaured. The dream is BIG. The folks running the show at LightSquared are no newbie’s. These are veterans’ in the Telco world and have run multibillion dollar networks in the past. However building an entire wireless network from scratch is a stretch and many folks doubt( here and here) if this is ever going to be become a reality. There are lot of hurdles from financial and implementation standpoint. In addition, as per FCC guidelines, LightSquared needs to cover 100 million people by end of 2012. Other operators are very aggressive with respect to 4G rollout. So competition is gone be stiff.

The clear winner out of this whole deal is Nokia Siemens, which signed an 8-year agreement worth $7 billion to deploy, install, operate and maintain LightSquared network. This will give Nokia Siemens a big boost to its ambition of becoming one of the Key Vendors for North American operators. The recent acquisition of Motorola wireless infrastructure business also bolsters its entry into most of the North American operator accounts.

Here are some highlights of the LightSquared announcement:
• Nokia Siemens Networks signs an 8-year agreement worth $7 billion to deploy, install, operate, and maintain LightSquared network
• First-ever wholesale nationwide 4G-LTE wireless broadband network integrated with satellite coverage allows partners to offer terrestrial-only, satellite-only, or integrated satellite-terrestrial services to their end users
• Telecommunications luminary Sanjiv Ahuja becomes Chairman and CEO, joined by a seasoned management team
• First truly open and net neutral wireless network spurring the development of new wireless devices, applications, and services
• Unique wholesale-only business model avoids conflict of interest with customers
• LightSquared is announcing up to $1.75 billion in additional debt and equity financing
• LightSquared network build-out anticipated to generate more than 100,000 direct and indirect private sector jobs within five years

Only time will tell if Harbinger will be able to execute its grand ambition of providing a wholesale-only nationwide 4G-LTE network. Stay tuned.