Manifest Tech Blog

Wi-Fi is great for wireless broadband Internet access in your home or office (see the Wireless Alliance. Wi-Fi on the road is more problematical -- Libraries and coffee houses may offer free Wi-Fi, while hotels and airports often have rather expensive for-pay services. And security is an issue in public hotspots -- free open services are wide open with no security, and the first thing you have to do with for-pay services is to broadcast your credit card number. So each time you stop and open your laptop, you first have to figure out the requirements of that local environment, find the right service, possibly enter special ID information, and then sign up for some period of service.

For example, when visiting a hospital in Boston I was thrilled to find free Wi-Fi service, which mostly worked great -- on the weekend. But during the week it became unusable as the demand increased, requiring multiple attempts to connect and even just check e-mail. Back in the hotel, we had the option of wired or wireless Internet connections, at $10.45 a day -- for each. You could not switch back and forth between the two different services, so you could use the possibly faster, more reliable, and more secure wired connection in the hotel room, but then pay extra to access the wireless connection in the hotel lobby and conference rooms.

Thus the attraction of mobile Internet access through cellular data services. Cell towers are everywhere, and can provide a more secure connection without easy snooping from your neighbors in the coffee house, plus cell-based service breaks the bounds of finding individual local hotspots to provide ubiquitous coverage anywhere in range of cellular coverage -- not just specific locations, but in any hotel or restaurant, or even on the go on a train or the back seat of a car.

To check out mobile Internet on my laptop, Verizon Wireless kindly loaned me a Sierra Wireless AirCard 595 to try out their enhanced EV-DO Rev. A service on a recent trip It delivered the promised DSL-like data rates for my notebook computer -- download to over 1,000 kbps and upload to around 720 kbps (kilobits per second).

Here's something different to combine the rugged lifestyle with all those cool wireless phone services -- camera, mobile Internet, video and audio downloads, wireless navigation, and more -- the Verizon Wireless / Casio G'zOne Type-V rugged handset (pronounced "G-Z-one").

This is a fully-packed wireless phone with speakerphone and 2 megapixel camera, in a mil-spec case, water and shock and dust resistant, and designed to withstand temperatures over 140ºF and submersion in one meter of water.

The basic design of the G'zOne is a clamshell phone, a little thicker than slim phones at 5.3 ounces, and augmented with a bumper guard at the bottom. It also includes a stopwatch and LED flashlight on the outer face.

The G'zOne is available from Verizon for $99.99 (two-year contract). Take it along on your next adventure -- just be sure to stay in range of a cell tower, and check that the ports and battery area are securely closed before you try dunking it...

See more in the Mobile Communications Gallery, under Mobile Internet and Multimedia.

What *is* that song? It's so familiar -- dah, dah, dah, dum, de, dum ... But I can't quite get it. So frustrating!

Never fear, your phone can recognize the music for you: Just hold your handset up to the speaker for 10 seconds, wait a beat, and then your phone displays the song title, artist, and even album that you are listening to. It can also e-mail you the information to look up later. Or you can buy and download songs immediately.

This magic is V CAST Song ID from Verizon Wireless -- released as a free download in mid-May for selected V CAST Music-enabled phones.

(The initial phones are the LG Chocolate, enV, VX8700, and VX9400, and the Samsung SCH-u620.)

The music is identified by matching a "fingerprint" from a recorded clip against a database of songs. The Song ID application on the phone prompts you to hold the handset near a music source for ten seconds (like the car radio or stereo speaker), and then uploads it to be matched. In another ten seconds or so the result is sent back to the phone to display the song information.

Note that Song ID matches against a database of specific pre-recorded songs, performed by a specific artist, and released on a specific album. You can't hum a tune or sing in the shower and expect it to find a match.

Of course, Verizon's motivation for making this cool application available for free is to encourage you to then go ahead and buy and download the music.

You can go back to your PC, check your e-mail, and buy songs at the V CAST Music Store for 99 cents each -- and then download them to your phone.

Or for immediate gratification, you can buy a full-track download directly on the phone for $1.99 per song -- the double price also includes the option to download a second full-quality version of the song from the V CAST Music store on your PC.

More below on trying out Song ID in the car and in the office.

GPS has gone portable, with handheld units like the LG LN735 Portable Navigator. It's not quite pocket size at 4.3 x 3.2 x 0.7 inches and 1/3 pounds, but it's easy to carry and easy to fit in the car, even when loaded up for a trip. We tried it out for the past few months traveling the eastern seaboard, through New England, on the streets of Boston, and winding our way along the shoreline of Cape Cod.

You should expect today's GPS navigators to work well -- Start up quickly (in under a minute or so), stay on track, and recompute routes quickly when needed (some 10's of seconds). It's the interface that makes these units -- both while driving, and when setting up and entering new destinations -- with live map guidance displays for the driver, plus added options for the passenger, including review of turn-by-turn directions.

The LG has a good driving interface on the 3 1/2 inch touchscreen display, with options for 2D (overhead) and 3D maps (perspective), plus night mode with a darker display (there's also a brightness control in the menus). The unit speaks voice prompts for upcoming turns (in multiple languages), with options to name the road (typically quite well even for odd names), and/or the highway number.

Even when we were traveling on known routes, it was still helpful to have the unit on to remind up of an upcoming highway exit, just in case we were too involved in the audio book and not paying attention to signs. The display counting down miles to the next turn also helped pace long drives.

The LG also can be used as a music player (MP3, WMA) and photo viewer (JPEG, BMP), especially with an optional SD card. You can just drag and drop media files though the USB connection using Microsoft ActiveSync. LG also includes PC Portal software to install new and updated maps, back up settings, and import your own custom favorites.

The LG LN735 Portable Navigator is available for around $249. There's also a less-expensive LN730 with fewer points of interest, and an enhanced LN740 with a larger 4 inch display and longer battery life (6 vs. 4 hours).

See the Mobile Communications Gallery, under Mobile Navigation Systems for details and comparisons.

(Compare the Verizon VZ Navigator service for mobile phones.)

    Find the LG LN735 Portable Navigator on Amazon.com

More on navigating below ...

Did you think broadcast TV was going away, replaced by subscriptions to hundreds of channels of cable service, and then Internet TV? But broadcast is coming back, not only with digital TV, but also with like TV service to mobile phones.

You already can get popular TV channels with the Sprint TV service, and subscribe direct from MobiTV to watch 30-some live TV channels on mobile phones or PDAs (and on your computer).

But you can imagine that the cellular carriers are not enthused about the idea of having their data networks swamped by masses of mobile subscribers continuously streaming different video content. The answer, of course, is to replace our phones with yet another service to bring real live TV, broadcast directly to your phone like the good old days of TVs with antennas.

One was to avoid this whole problem is to offer content only in chunks, with time outs from streaming for the network as you select each clip to play. This is how you use the Apple iPhone to play clips from YouTube.

It's also the model for the Verizon Wireless V CAST Video service, which offers recent edited highlights of news, sports, popular shows (like the Daily Show from Comedy Central), and music concerts. Think of clips for a newscast or sports wrap-up show -- not live TV, but recent updates.

But for real live TV, a better answer is to take the demands of continuous streaming off the cellular data network, and move to a broadcast model for the mass-market content. All this requires is deploying a parallel network on cellular towers that can broadcast a core group of the same 20-some popular channels live, to be received as digital TV by all mobile subscribers simultaneously. With most popular content off the standard cellular data service, it's still available for our own personal uses and more niche content.

The two formats driving this idea are QUALCOMM MediaFLO, particularly in the U.S., and DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld), particularly overseas.

Verizon Wireless has introduced the MediaFLO service in the U.S. as V CAST Mobile TV (press release), launched in major U.S. markets this year. The service currently includes eight channels of scheduled live content and other programming for mass audiences (CBS, Fox, NBC, MSNBC News, Comedy Central, ESPN, MTV, Nickelodeon).

The Mobile TV service runs on the LG VX9400 phone, with a swing bar design -- a large color LCD screen (~ 2 1/4") that swivels for landscape TV viewing.

I tried out the Verizon Mobile TV service in New York City recently (it's not available in central New Jersey yet), and got good reception around the city. The signal started up relatively quickly (10 seconds or so), and channel changes took a few seconds, equivalent to today's digital TVs. The picture was great on the LG VX9400, and particularly when swiveled to landscape mode many of the text crawls at the bottom of the screen were quite readable, including on news channels and ESPN poker broadcasts.

The TV reception did fail inside a building near Battery Park at the bottom of Manhattan, though it did come in intermittently when standing by the outside windows. And there was no reception on a train under Penn Station -- even though the Verizon 1X and EV-DO signals are still quite strong there. (It would be nice to have a signal strength meter for the broadcast signal as well.) But when the train emerged out of the tunnel on the New Jersey side, the TV signal ran great almost all the way to Newark.

See my Mobile Communications Gallery for details and related products.

    Find the Verizon Wireless / LG VX9400 on Amazon.com

   (with Josh Page)

Stressed by lost calls on your mobile phone? Tired of searching along windows or by open doors for even one precious bar of cellular signal? Instead of you having to go find the signal, bring the signal indoors to you with the Wi-Ex zBoost line of cell phone signal boosters.

These replicate the cell signal from outdoors to indoors through a window attachment that is wired to an indoor antenna, giving you multiple bars of signal in what was previously a dead area.

The Wi-Ex (Wireless Extenders) zBoost product line includes models for different locations (home, car, office), and single and dual-band models for the two main cellular bands.

We tried out the zBoost zPersonal (zP), which creates a cell zone of 4 to 6 feet radius, for a single user (one call at a time), and works with both cellular bands ($169).

The product has two components: the zBoost box (~5 x 4 x 1 1/4 in.) and a small antenna (6 1/4"), connected by a thin 20 foot cable.

To set up the unit, find a window with at least one bar of cellular signal, and attach the zBoost box with the two suction cups. Then run the antenna to the center of your workspace -- It needs to be at least 10 feet from the main console (or else a red light blinks to tell you to move them further apart). Finally, plug in the main unit.

We tested the zBoost zPersonal in the basement, where runs of old plumbing, pipes, and concrete walls result in very limited service. Starting with only one to two bars on an AT&T (Cingular) phone, within ten seconds the zBoost jumped the signal to an amazing six bars (better then the reception on the ground floor).

We also saw good results with the zBoost in other rooms and floors and buildings, turning marginal signals into strong reception. This also can help extend the battery life of phones, as they no longer have to struggle to stay connected.

The zBoost products support one or both of the two main cellular bands used by phones for the four major carriers (but not Nextel):
- 800 MHz Cellular - typically for Verizon and AT&T (Cingular) service - (824 – 896 MHz)
- 1900 MHz PCS - typically for Sprint and T-Mobile service (1850 – 1990 MHz)

Beyond the zBoost Personal, other Wi-Ex products include:
- zBoost Home / Office ($299) is available for either 800 MHz Cellular or 1900 MHz PCS, with coverage up to 2500 sq. ft., and supports multiple phones simultaneously
- zBoost Dual Band ($399) extends coverage up to 3,000 sq. ft.
- zBoost for the Car ($299) is also dual-band

See my Mobile Communications Gallery for more details.

    Find the Wi-Ex zBoost zPersonal on Amazon.com

Smartphones are hot, combining phone and email and Web and media -- There's the excitement for the Apple iPhone, addiction to the RIM BlackBerry, patient fans of the Palm Treo, and the new promise of the Google phone. And regular cell phones are going multimedia, with music, video, and now TV phones.

But some people don't need all that stuff, and instead just want a straightforward phone for making occasional calls. All you need could be a simple, easier to use phone, avoiding the zillions of tiny buttons and confusing icons crowded on a small display. But at the same time, you don't want a dumbed-down ugly phone either.

The Verizon Wireless Coupe mobile phone targets this sweet spot of a simple but useful phone. It's a flip phone, with slightly larger keys and a more readable display, plus extra dedicated buttons for 911 and other important numbers.

The phone itself fits in your palm -- small but not tiny. There's a small monochrome display on the front that displays the time, date, signal strength, and battery power. It lights up when you open the phone, or to show the number of an incoming call.

Flip open the phone to see the larger main display, in color. As welcome help to old (or young) eyes, the text on the display is a bit larger than other phones, the keys are a bit larger, and even the print in the Getting Started and User Guide documentation is larger. None of this is blatantly oversize, but the keys and text are all a bit larger and therefore easier to read and use.

Simplified interface ...

While the Verizon Coupe is a simple phone for people who don't need fancy features (see previous post), the Verizon Wireless / LG Voyager Multimedia Smartphone is the opposite: a phone for people who revel in messaging, music, and multimedia.

The Voyager (technically the LG VX10000) can be used in two ways: keep it closed as a flat phone with a colorful vertical touch screen, or open it to reveal a horizontal screen with a full keyboard. And it has a 2 megapixel autofocus camera and a microSD memory expansion port.

The outer display provides colorful icons for full access with to the main menu, shortcut menu, phone calling with touch-screen keypad, and music and video playback. When you tap the screen, the "VibeTouch" technology provides tactile feedback by vibrating briefly.

The inner display in landscape orientation is better for interactive activities like text messaging (with the keyboard) and Web browsing over Verizon's high-speed EV-DO wireless broadband service.

The inner display is not a touch screen -- you use cursor keys on the keyboard to navigate. Both screens are 2.81 inch color LCDs, 400 x 240 resolution.

The Voyager as a media player ...