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First, the good news.  TruPhone, the UK mobile VoIP client I’ve written about before, has launched their client VoIP application for the iPhone and is available in the iPhone App Store.

Before this announcement, TruPhone has only been available for the Symbian platform which I’ve used on my Nokia phones.  What does TruPhone do?  Easy answer: it uses Internet telephony to route calls, making it very cheap to call internationally from your mobile phone.  Because it uses Wi-Fi, TruPhone does not have any roaming charges and also allows you co make calls when you you’re in a cell phone dead spot.

Now the bad news: A limitation to the iPhone TruPhone application is that it only allows you to make calls while on a Wi-Fi hotspot, not over the 3G cellular data network.  On the other hand, my Nokia phone running S60, while on 3G, can send and receive VoIP calls over TruPhone when on 3G *and* Wi-Fi.

I imagine this is due to the fact that Apple and AT&T crippled the iPhone’s ability to do VoIP calling while on the 3G network.  Steve Jobs is okay with you VoIPing over Wi-Fi, but not 3G.  Gotta love the US telcos cripling phones…yikes.

The new E71 I just received is the North American version, meaning it supports 3G speeds on AT&T’s network.  Up until now, I’ve been on T-Mobile for my US GSM needs, which means I’ve been using EDGE for my data access.

Well now that I have a 3G capable phone, it might just mean I have to switch to AT&T to get the faster HSDPA data network.  Unfortunately, this means less voice minutes.  For $30/month, I get 300 anytime minutes from T-Mo and unlimited weekends, AT&T only gives 200 anytime minutes sans the weekend minutes for the same price.

Should I do it?  I’ll keep you posted.

I had a surprise waiting for me from the UPS man today, a brand new shiny Nokia E71, courtesy of the Nokia Blogger Relations program.  I have been very excited about this phone, ever since it was announced.

This handset if the update to the ever popular E61i, a phone I’ve written about before.  As you can see in the photo to the right, this business-centric phone has a full QWERTY keyboard and office productivity software.  In addition, the Nokia E71 features:

• an updated 3.2 MP camera
• GPS unit with A-GPS
• Narrow-sized keyboard for one-handed use
• Two customizable home screens.  For me, I’ll have one for work hours and one for non-work hours (ie, no work email).

Just playing with the E71 for a few hours, here are my initial thoughts:

• This thing is FAST.  No delay when hitting buttons - no thinking about tasks…just instant productivity and access to the phones menus and features.
• This phone is thin and sexy.  It’s about as thick as my RAZR and fits into the pocket very well.
• Build quality seems solid.
• E-mail set up was a snap.  I instantly had m work Exchange email running along with Gmail IMAP.
• The Switch application from Nokia instantly transferred my contacts, web bookmarks, and calendar appointments very easily.
• The screen is bright and vibrant.

Sam Dean argues that Microsoft would be wise to open source parts, if not all, of their crappy Windows Mobile operating system.  This is an interesting thought, especially with the news a few weeks back of Nokia buying and open sourcing the market leading Symbian operating system combined with the pending arrival of Google’s Android.

I don’t feel Microsoft will open source Windows Mobile.  They have no reason to.  In this coming world of Mobile OS battles, there is enough room in the market for two open source Mobile OSs (which include Symbian and Google’s Android) and a few proprietary ones (namely Windows Mobile and RIM BlackBerry OS).  Microsoft will continue to position Windows Mobile as the necessary on-the-go companion for enterprises who use Windows Servers to power their networks and business-critical applications.

With this angle, Windows Mobile will continue to shed market share which currently stands at about 12% according to this Wikipedia article.  I predict Apple’s iPhone will continue to make strides in the consumer smart phone market and their share will gradually rise, with RIM continuing to dominate the enterprise and Symbian having strong share in both arenas.

(photo credit: Flickr User Totoro!)

One of the issues with Cloud Computing is when things go down and users don’t have a backup in place.  This is especially true with business critical docs such as word processing documents and spreadsheets.  The Register is reporting that Google Docs and Spreadsheets has suffered some down-time today, right smack dab in the middle of the business day.  Ouch!

Google Docs and Spreadsheets says to try back in 30 seconds, but I’m sure it’s customers who rely upon this utility computing facility are wishing they had local copies of the documents handy.

(Photo credit: Flickr User Shutterhack)

According to Google Operating System, Google Maps is trialing a new feature for maps users - walking directions.  This will be a great addition to the Google Maps System as more and more people chose to walk in major cities with the rising costs of gas and the pain involved with finding and paying for parking.

My hope is that Google Maps for Mobile gets this same functionality.  Because in a similar manner, my Nokia N82 handset features Nokia Maps, which also features walking directions with the recent release of Nokia Maps 2.0.  I find this to be a great feature and use it regularly while walking around downtown Portland and when I’m traveling to other cities.

I’m glad to see Google introducing the same feature on the web version, but for my friends who aren’t fortunate to have Nokia Maps at their disposal, I hope Google introduces this in Google Maps for mobile as well.

As a Mac user, I sometimes feel left out of the party when it comes to certain software offerings.  Also, as a new Boingo user (thanks to Jeremy Pepper for the account), I was glad to see they had clients for my Nokia mobile phone and N810 tablet.  Now the service has become more useful as today they’ve announced the availability of a GoBoingo client for the Mac.

The client is especially useful as you don’t have to guess whether the hotspot in your airport of coffee shop is a Boingo-enabled one.  The GoBoingo client does all the work and automatically signs you in, allowing you to surf straight away.

For those unaware, Boingo is a network of wi-fi access points that spans the globe with spots in airports, coffee shops (including Barnes and Noble), and other businesses.  Their global plans start at a mere $22/month.

United States broadband customers have long had the luxury of flat-rate broadband pricing.  One monthly fee got you unlimited bandwidth, sparing us from having to count megabits up and down.  But now,  broadband carriers are either implementing tiered pricing (such as BendBroadband) or considering it (Comcast and others) in response to bandwidth intensive usage models such as online video streaming and Bit Torrent.

On the wireless side, Americans also enjoy unlimited amounts of bandwidth on our mobile handsets.  Verizon Wireless was the first telco to implement a ceiling to their “unlimited” mobile broadband EV-DO service when they capped bandwidth at 5GB/month.  However, for mobile handsets handset such as Nokia, Blackberry or Windows Mobile devices, major US wireless companies are still offering a mobile data plan with unlimited bandwidth up and down.

While reading this article about Qik (covered before), a warning light flashed in my head.  Will bandwidth intensive mobile applications such as Qik and others force mobile telcos such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint/Nextel, and T-Mobile to institute a mobile data bandwidth cap and tiered mobile data plan prices?

You see, Qik is an application that allows you to stream live video to the web, producing large volumes of data for mobile telcos to handle.  I’m sure that additional bandwidth-intensive applications are on the way, especially with more and more mobile handsets coming out with advanced hardware features.

My guess is that yes - unlimited mobile data will be a thing of the past within 5 years.  The mobile carriers have already shown with SMS that they’ll exploit every angle to improve their profit margins.  Rightfully so because they are a corporation, which exists mainly to create wealth for shareholders.

Enjoy your unlimited mobile data while you still can.

Today is Independence Day, and I just wanted to wish everyone a happy one!  We’re lucky to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.  We’re able to express ourselves however we want to (this blog is a prime example) and exchange ideas without worry.

Happy Birthday, America!

The cost of sending and receiving SMS, also called text messages, is getting obsurd.  As Marguerite Reardon of Cnet points out: since 2005, the cost of SMS has doubled on all four major US telcos from 10 cents to 20 cents per message.

Why are the mobile phone service providers charging this much to send 160 characters of information?  Simple answer - because people are paying it.  So before you go griping about the big corporations and their practices, complain to your telco and refuse to send SMS messages.  This will be the only way we can get through to the Big 4 (Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and AT&T).

Sure text messaging is convenient and very popular in some circles (people under 25), but what is it going for us to say “enough is enough”.  Rather than use SMS, I suggest you look at mobile IM options.