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When recently talking to someone about the apps he's using on his mobile device and which social networks he is active in he noted that he likes Facebook a lot but the app for it on his mobile device is so power hungry, he doesn't dare to let it run in the background because his battery will go flat in a matter of hours. That tells me that he probably gets a lot of updates that are then immediately pushed down to the mobile, which in turn requies the radio to be switched on quite often. There we go, a natural barrier hit.

So what is needed in this case is that the apps becomes more situational aware. When the display backlight is switched off and the phone is locked there's no need for updates to be pushed continuously and the app could inform the backend server so status info is collected and stored until the user actually checks for updates again. I don't think that would be difficult to do. And surely, network operators would be happy about it as well as it reduces the signaling load on the network.

A little note to those today playing with the thought of attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2011. If you think about going, make sure you book your flight and hotel soon. So far, flights are still available for reasonable prices and hotel and hostal rooms can still be hade for double digit prices. If previous years are any indication it won't hold for long and prices are likely to go up significantly soon. Of course as every year I will be at the Wiley booth (my publisher) on one of the days to talk to readers and friends. Would be great to meet you there!

I've been an Opera Mini web browser fan ever since it has first appeared as a Java application on the first Symbian phones as even on mid-range phones it makes browsing lightning fast. Another reason for me using it is that it keeps my costs for mobile data down when I travel abroad as it uses a network side compression server. But even on high end phones, the mini's compression techniques have its advantages as no matter how powerful the device is, compressed data is still downloaded and rendered much more quickly. Try browsing with a normal browser in a train with a patchy network outside or just GPRS or EDGE coverage and the advantages are even more profound. Over the years, Opera has added native mini's for Android and the iPhone but so far, it always remained a Java application on Symbian. Not that I particularly minded, as the speed was just stunning, despite a Java interpreter between the browser and the phone. But now Opera seems to have changed its mind and now also offers a first native beta for Symbian.

I gave it a try on a current Symbian^3 phone and it looks almost exactly identical to the Java version. Once loaded I'd say it's hard to spot the difference. As Opera mentions in the press release, the native version starts much faster than the Java version, I'd say it's up and running in a second. Spectacular! Scrolling through a page via the touch interface is a tick smoother than with the Java version. And another good feature: With the online bookmark synch option, getting the bookmarks and the six start page pans for quick access to the Symbian app is done in a few seconds. Very nicely done, Opera, thanks a lot! 

BTW: No need to go to an appstore to get it, just open any browser on the mobile device, head over to www.operamini.com and download it right from there.

Via IntoMobile

Here's a quick post about a very simple but potentially powerful mobile service I recently heard about at the Forum Oxford Technology conference: Text4Baby, a service in the US for pregant mothers, sends SMS messages each week during and after their pregnancy with tips and advice on what should be happening at around this time of the pregnancy and tips concerning the mother's and baby's health. A great service for something that doesn't come with a manual as someone noted during the conference. While this is an innitiative in the US, I wonder if there are similar ideas in other countries!? If you know, please leave a comment.

Every now and then I'd like to buy a ticket online when I am traveling, for a theater play, for a bus ride, for the next train trip, a museum ticket, etc. The difficult thing that is a showstopper sometimes is that you never know how to convert the virtual ticket to a real ticket afterwards. The good old way is to print out something and to present it somewhere, something that is not really feasible when you travel and don't have a printer you can use nearby. Some offer to send you a text (SMS) but they don't tell you in advance if that works with a foreign SIM card, too. Some offer a code to present, some work with your name and presenting the credit card, some send you a 2D bar code that you have to present on paper, others are progressive and allow it to be shown on the mobile phone, etc. etc. Quite a chaos, really. Some more thought around how foreigners can buy a product visiting the country and clear information before the sales process of how the real product can be collected afterwords would be really good.

As a frequent traveler there are some things that are always in my suitcase and that are never taken out when I am at home so I won't forget them on the next trip. One of those things is a spare charger for my mobile phones. When I recently arrived in Oxford I noticed that I forgot to put the usual charger in my backpack. Already thinking that I'd have to go out and by a charger for the week I suddenly remembered that I have a spare one in the suitcase. So much for redundancy! Sure, you wouldn't have this problem with recent phones, most of them now chargable over USB. And with universal chargers now coming to the market, things are getting even simpler and, as a side note, also a bit more environment friendly.

In a recent press release, 3UK says their 3G network now transports 100 terabytes of data a day. An impressive number. One and a half years ago, 3UK reported 1000 TB per month or roughly 33 TB per day. In other words, the amount of data going through their network has trippled in about 18 months.

Back then I did some calculations to set the number into context and to show by breaking it down to a base station, there's still ample room for future growth. At the time I estimated them to have around 8000 base stations. The press report linked to above states that after their recent network upgrade and extension they now have increase their number of base station sites from 7500 to 12400 in the last 3 years. So my estimation back then was right on the mark.

With the number of base stations having increased by a third, the load of their network as calculated back in 2009 should by now have doubled. So from a capacity point of view they should still be fine and HSPA+ in addition to adding a second carrier per coverage sector should keep them ahead of the increasing use in terms of capacity for quite some time if they do things right.

Via IntoMobile

Here's a link to a very interesting slide deck on mobile by Volker Hirsch he recently presented at the Forum Oxford Future Technology conference. A number that, I have to admit, only struck me afterwards is on slide 4:

• Number of toothbrushes in use: 2.25 billion
• Number of mobile phone subscribers: 4.6 billion

I assume the number of mobile phone subscribers is the number of subscriptions worldwide and as many people these days have more than a single subscription / SIM card, the actual number will be lower. But still, there seem to be more people on this planet with a mobile phone than a toothbrush!? That's a bit shocking. Mobile phones with built in toothbrushes? Anyone?

When you pay per night for a hotel room it usually contains the electricity, the water, the soap, new sheets for the bed and lots of other things. In most hotels, however, guests still have to pay for Wi-Fi Internet access, which often dissapoints afterwards because its slow as the DSL link of the hotel is far underdimensioned. So far so good (or not) but why is everything free while Wi-Fi is still not? How about putting a couple of rooms in place without a TV but where Wi-Fi or Internet access via an Ethernet cable is free? I'd be the first to take such a room as I almost never use the TV and in fact it's just taking up space unless you can use it as a second screen for your PC. So the hotel saves the cost for the TV and also the monthly fee they have to pay for each TV set to national broadcasting authorities. That should more than pay for the Internet connection and maybe even leave some money to invest in some more backhaul capacity. Yes, probably not an idea that will spread like a wild fire, at least not for now. But I keep hoping and expecting.

I can't quite remember when I last depended on 2.5G EDGE to connect my notebook to the Internet, must have been a couple of years ago, perhaps back in 2008, as 3G has become pretty ubiquitous at the places I went. But recently in Thailand, where 3G has not yet quite arrived and the hotel Wi-Fi agonizingly slow at times, it was much better than the alternative. Fortunately, the 2G network at the place worked really well and with throughput speeds of around 250-300 kbit/s, I was actually quite surprised that I could actually get my work done with little pain. Not as fast as with a 3G connection by far, but the delay times before pages started to be displayed and emails downloaded were still bearable. So what's the message here? Perhaps it's "don't write it off just yet, 2.5G still has some uses now and then beyond small screen web browsing".