A colleague of mine at work got a gift of an iPhone these “Happy Holidays”. Well, that is not unusual, I’m sure a large number of people did. However, this person got an unlocked iPhone which can run on T-Mobile, their favorite cellphone network. Now this person was able to have freedom of choice of cellphone network, and freedom of choice is usually good.

Although I’ve mentioned unlocking as applies to GSM cellphones before, here is a quick primer:
First, almost all GSM cellphones are “locked” to the cellphone network which provides the cellphone. This is especially so when buying a subsidized phone on a contract. Basically the cellphone carriers are protecting their own interests. In the case of the first generation iPhone, it was locked to the AT&T network, so that AT&T would get the benefit of payments for the length of the contract. As Apple made agreements with cellphone networks in other countries, the iPhone in those countries would be locked to those cellphone networks.

Now specifically with the iPhone, which first of all had Research and Development costs to recoup, and secondly being initially a one of a kind phone, there was a lot at stake. Apple and AT&T wanted to protect their investment on one side, and numerous people wanted to be able to own an iPhone, especially in countries where it wasn’t yet available.

And so the iPhone became a prime target  for unlocking.

Yesterday I mentioned ZoneAlarm Security suite, but what about Norton or McAfee?
A few years ago I had a series of bad (and sometimes ridiculous) experiences with the McAfee  Internet Security Suite, and have not used it since. A few months back, someone had some problems on their PC. They had McAfee installed, with a subscription for updates. I advised them to continue with McAfee. A anti-virus with a current update subscription is far better than one with an expired subscription. The longer the subscription stays expired, the more false your sense of security will be…

There are those users that claim that the best defense is a “Best of Breed” Security Suite of you own making. This way you have the best firewall, best Antivirus and best Anti-spyware running on your machine. The only problem is that this is more prone to some sort of incompatibilities, with one of the program stepping on one of the others. I would only recommend doing this if you really know what you are doing.

Then there is the cheap or free Internet security suite – “cheapest of breed”. This way you combine a free firewall with a free antivirus and free anti-spyware. I have done this one of my old machines which doesn’t get used often but still needs full protection.

This week Google launched an enhanced Google search App for the iPhone which includes a speech to text search. According to the New York Times in this article, “Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?” The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.
The search results, which may be displayed in just seconds on a fast wireless network, will at times include local information, taking advantage of iPhone features that let it determine its location. ”

I’ve just tested it and asked it “How far is it to JFK airport”, and it came back with a reply about some airport in Michigan!. That is once problem the speech to text search application has run into – English spoken with an accent which is not American – see “Google launches voice activated search for iPhone - can’t understand British accents“. I’ve always maintained that I don’t have an accent, but everyone else around me does!

So what is it about Netbooks and Clouds (Cloud Computing)?. Maybe it is like one of those tunes I can’t get out of my head. Actually, I’m more interested in the Client side of Cloud computing. Just giving the definitions of Cloud Computing was enough for me (see Cloud Computing)

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 I mentioned in my last blog entry was one of a series of Netbooks from manufacturers as diverse as Hewlett-Packard (HP 2133), MSI (MSI Wind U100 Notebook), Asus (ASUS Eee PC 900), Acer (Acer Aspire One Mini A150-1006 Notebook) and the Dell. These are just a subset of the many Netbooks available.

Wikipedia defines a Netbook as “A netbook is a small to medium sized, light-weight, low-cost, energy-efficient laptop, generally optimized for internet based services such as web browsing and e-mailing.“. The internet-based services part is a hint of the Cloud.

Then there is the Nettop, a “term introduced by Intel to describe “low-cost” desktop computers“.

Microsoft today announced a new product for Cloud Computing, called Windows Azure, which is going to be a cloud-computing platform, or cloud computing Operating System.

Cloud Computing is a buzzword I vaguely understand, so I looked around for a definition of it.

Firstly, Cloud Computing has nothing to do with Microsoft Flight Simulator.

There were over 150 articles on Cloud Computing on Knol (Google’s answer to Wikipedia).

Sam Johnston of Australian Online Solutions wrote:
“Cloud Computing is the realisation of Internet (’Cloud’) based development and use of computer technology (’Computing’) delivered by an ecosystem of providers.”

The next definition, from Kirill Osipov, seemed to sum it up nicely:
“Growth in adoption of software delivered over the Internet resulted in the situation where people depend on Internet for services that enable everyday activities like document editing, photo sharing, banking and so on. To the users, the computing and storage resources needed to power the service software exist in the “cloud”, that is the users are spared the details of where and how the software actually runs.”

In my previous blog entry I quoted from Dian’s GottaHave blog, and will be doing it again, as she gave an interesting reference to in her Blog “Ultra-Low-Cost, Ultra-Mobile Computers, Part 1“: “..Expectations from some companies are that you’ll do your computing “in the clouds,” relying on free services from Google and a hundred other dot-com companies to give you productivity applications and maintain your data.”

Just for reference, the Wikipedia article on Cloud Computing is here.

This weekend I upgraded, or rather, replaced my current wireless-G (802.11b/g) router. The old router was acting up, the wireless would suddenly drop even though the status light showed that it was supposed to be on. To get it working again I had to turn it off and then on again. Also, one of the wired Ethernet ports was giving intermittent trouble, sometimes just not working. I’d had the router for a little over two years, and had bought it to replace an old (802.11b) router. The router was asking to be replaced or at least trashed.

Since networking really isn’t my specialty, I spoke to an acquaintance at work to find out more about hubs and printer servers. I had to start with a solid wireless router though, and he recommended that I get a Linksys router (no model was mentioned). He probably meant the predecessor to the Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless Router that was on special at a local retail chain. After reading up about it - several user and expert reviews, mainly positive, I purchased the router. It was easy to setup, with a step-by-step installation. It is also faster than my previous wireless-G router, this through a wired Ethernet connection. My next challenge - which would have to wait until another weekend, is to add a print server.

Wireless internet on an itty-bitty phone.

Sometime ago I mentioned my current cellular handset of choice - the Nokia E51. Along with many other features it has built-in wireless. Great, you can browse the web at a wireless access point, as well as using EDGE. Maybe I’m spoiled because of the larger screens on PDAs, but browsing the internet on a 2 inch 240 by 320 pixel screen really doesn’t do it for me. Make no mistake, the Nokia E51 web browser is no slouch, and has an easy way of navigating around web pages not meant for mobile devices.

Then I remembered something from the manual (yes, I glanced through the manual, I couldn’t help it!); the Nokia E51 can be used as a cellular modem. The manual describes using a laptop to connect to the Nokia E51 with either Infrared or Bluetooth, and so browse the internet on a bigger screen. I was looking for a more portable solution though.

I have not tried it yet, but I’d be willing to bet that it may be possible to use the E51 as a cellular modem for the Nokia N800 Internet tablet. This may be possible especially since both devices are made by Nokia, even though they have different Operating Systems.

In the first “Best for Mobile Browsing” blog posting I got side-tracked after blogging about the Motorola A780 and the iPhone.

Apart from cellphones there are several other mobile devices which can be used for web browsing. The not-dead-yet PDA handheld is one of them. The Blazer web browser on the Palm TX has a number of fans, but I’d label it as average. Almost all Windows Mobile handhelds (previously known as Pocket PCs) like the HP iPaq 110 and HP iPaq 210 have Wi-Fi, and of course PIE (Pocket Internet Explorer). Opera for Windows Mobile was not free the last time I looked, but it was still worth buying for the improved browsing experience, with tabs. The iPaq 210 has a 4-inch, 640 by 480 pixel “VGA” touch screen display, so would be quite decent for web browsing.

Then there are the products made specifically for web browsing, as well as having a host of other features, the Nokia N800 and Nokia N810 Internet Tablets. These are still pocketable (jacket pocket not shirt pocket) mobile devices. Both have around 4-inch, 800 by 480 pixel resolution touch screens, and run a Mozilla-based browser with Ajax and Adobe Flash 9. The web browser allows zooming and full screen mode, as well as multiple browser windows.

There is something about networks that I just don’t get. It is not using networks or the internet, that I do every day. Networking with a Windows Domain server I understand. It’s when configuring a home network that I run into a minor problem (well, maybe not so minor!). Getting various computers to connect to a wireless router along with wired connections is no problem. Neither is connecting to the internet. It is the simple task of sharing resources on a home network. Now at work I have absolutely no problem with this, but then professionals have set up the network. It is at home where I run into problems. The simple matter of sharing a directory (folder) just causes problems. Getting it shared is not the problem, it is having Windows crash when I copy from a shared folder to another computer. Admittedly it could have been overzealous antivirus or firewall software which I was using at the time, but eventually I gave up.

Then I found a product similar to Encore Network Now! Pro. It made networking simpler. One of the things it did was recommend a range of IP addresses of my computers which had to be entered as a local network in my firewall. It paid for itself when I was able to install and share a printer connected to one of the PCs, and print from a wirelessly connected notebook.

So what is the best mobile device for browsing the web? By mobile device I’m excluding small notebooks and tablets which run Windows.

Firstly there are a number of factors which influence the quality of web browsing. The actually web browser engine, physical screen size, screen resolution, bandwidth and ease of navigation all play a part in the browsing experience. On the “Mobile browser rendering” webpage by Mark “Tarquin” Wilton-Jones, a series of tests performed in 2005-2006 were used to compare mobile web browsing software.

Normal cellphones – in other words cellphones without extra large screens, non-converged mobile phones, non-smartphones – generally have the worst browsing experience. This is usually due to small screens coupled with rather average browsers and bandwidth. Usually with these cellphones you can only browse to the sites which the carrier allows you, via text menus. In contrast I’ve seen the Motorola A780, not much bigger than most cellphones, but which runs Linux with the Opera Browser. You can go to any webpage, and pages are rendered really fast. This is a good mobile browsing experience but the cellphone is a smartphone.

Of course I cannot mention browsing on a smartphone without mentioning the iPhone. With a screen measuring 3.5 inches diagonally and resolution of 480 by 320 pixels, running the Safari browser, it naturally has an advantage when it comes to mobile browsing.