This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists is hosted by Debi Jones at MobileJones and contains a bumper crop of posts from all around the world and on a variety of topics; Handset companies, former handset companies, Internet companies, new entrants and social networking giants are all involved in mashups of services.

Have a look for a good roundup of this week’s mobile news.

This morning, The Register reports O2’s admission that its 3G customers are limited to 128Kb/s connections - with some business users being upgraded as O2 sees fit.

“384Kb/s is the technical limit of 3G technology, without resorting to HSPDA, but topping out at 128Kb/s is something of an embarrassment for a 3G network. Not that using HSDPA will help the O2 customer, depending on the “profile” O2 has decided to assign to them they might still find themselves allocated only 128Kb/sec”, says El Reg.

In non-techy terms, this means that you’re buying a 3G phone, with the expectation of fast mobile web browsing, but in fact, you’re being limited to half the potential speed you should get.

A clever fella from the 3G.co.uk forum did a speed test on the network, getting the following speeds:

GPRS 44kbit/sec
EDGE 145kbit/sec
3G 112kbit/sec
HSDPA 124kbit/sec

I tried the tests a few times and posted the fastest. The 3G and HSDPA speeds are consistently around the times posted. The EDGE speeds were more variable, from 90 to 145kbit/sec I assume depending on cell traffic at the time.

Is it just me, or are customers not getting at all what O2 is claiming. It’s supposed to be 3G, and it ain’t doing what it says on the tin!

Granted, I’ve got an iPhone, I wouldn’t get 3G speeds anyways, but I do feel sorry for the cheeky sods who’ve been giving me a tough time for having a non-3G phone. I’m currently getting better speeds than you are if you’re also on O2!

Now, immature raspberry-blowing aside, I do hope O2 get their act together and allow non-business users to experience the full potential the network has to offer. This is a stick in the wheels of the mobile web we simply do not need.

[Update: Seems like O2 are set on making an impression on their customer base today. Did you know we’re “a bunch of geeks” and would be “muppets” for considering changing networks? Well, it seems too funny to be true, but O2 PR staff may need some coaching on locking their phone before having private conversations.

Did you hear that? Yes, it’s the sound of two PR people who are going to have a very bad end of Wednesday…]

Yesterday, I blogged about T-Mobile’s poor decision to ask Engadget Mobile to remove all traces of magenta from its branding. As Stan from Mashable says, “how, exactly, did the T’s lawyers and PR folks think Engadget will react? Humbly remove all traces of magenta from their site, issuing a big ole apology? If they did, they were wrong.”

I bow down to Engadget’s creative response. Note the header changes:

Here at Taptu, you might have noticed we’re very fond of the colour pink. We haven’t received a letter from T-Mobile, but we’ll be happy to tell them where to go if we ever do!

Join Engadget’s solidarity campaign by going pink for the day, like GearBits, Josiah Miller and Joshua Topolsky.
Read the rest of this entry »

A bit ahead of the game, Engadget Mobile released their April Fool joke last night in the form of an article reporting that Deutsche Telekom has sent them a letter asking them to stop using the colour magenta, as T-Mobile, a DT-owned company, uses it in its branding. It’s a comical attempt on Engadget’s part, but really, it’s a rather unrealistic claim. No company would be stupid enough to think they own a colour…

Oh… hold on. Sorry, I’m being told over the wire that the letter isn’t an April Fool joke at all, and that the General Manager of Weblogs Inc did receive this letter. Ahem. Well, on this note, just in case you begin to confuse the two brands, here’s a simple chart to help you out.

I mean, really, guys!

Since Friday, Cuba is that little bit freer than it used to be. Raul Castro has lifted the national ban on “computers, video players, all sizes of televisions, pressure cookers, electric rice cookers, electric bicycles and car alarms”, according to the Washington Post article, but most significantly, the ban on mobile phone purchases was lifted.

Some Cubans already own mobile phones, but it was never an easy process and phones were mostly acquired from foreigners. The new system won’t be as easy as walking into a store and picking up a Pay As You Go phone a minute later, since users will have to pay in foreign currency and the average salary is under $20 USD a month, which means only wealthier people are likely to be able to afford it.

Regardless, it’s a step in the right direction, and Cuba isn’t the only one moving towards loosening its tight grip over means of communication. North Korea, where people were once executed in public for owning a mobile phone, is allowing its citizens to carry them again.

As ownership picks up pace over the next few years, we’ll most likely discover new facets of Cuba as citizens begin to exercise their freedom to communicate.

As a further proof that mobiles are absolutely taken for granted as a means of communication, I received an automated text message from Persil Services, who do dry cleaning at my local Sainsbury’s, to tell me my dress was ready to be picked up.

I expected to have to dig up that receipt the lady gave me last week, which I crammed in the back pocket of my jeans, never to be found again, but they’ve saved me hassle by reminding me of my ticket number.

They still can’t spell my name right (*sigh*) but otherwise, Persil gets thumbs up on this!

Last week, Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief at The Next Web, interviewed Steve, our CEO, asking some very interesting questions about the mobile social search, wondering whether we were bonkers for seemingly going against Google, the giant of search.

After interviewing Ives and trying out the service myself, I can say that Taptu has found Google’s Achilles heel. Mobile social search is one of those ideas that seem obvious after somebody explained to you - just like Paul Arden’s books. The service is still in early beta, yet when Ives tells about his ambitious plan, I truly believe he can achieve them.

Since launching the new features a few weeks ago, many new users have echoed Ernst-Jan’s thoughts, and it’s truly great to hear it. Without you, our users, we’d just be this mad David against the Goliaths of Search. But with you, we can be mad and daring together. So thank you!

In the past two decades, our lives have become increasingly digital and portable with office work, kids’ homework, entertainment and shopping coming into the household in bits and bytes. We’re faced with more information than ever before, and more ways than ever to access it.

In most aspects, we’re happy with the digitisation of our lives, but have kept a few bastions of the analog world unmodified for centuries, one of which is the book. Unquestionably, the production process is easier than it was in Gutenberg’s days, but we still print with ink onto paper and bind it together with a thick cover.

In the past twenty years, a lot of written word’s moved to the computer screen, but leisure reading is one of those things that’s remained firmly printed on paper. There have been many attempts to create electronic readers that “feel like reading print”, but they’ve all fallen by the wayside without ever getting to critical mass.

Yet, on Monday, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos announced the launch of the Kindle Reader, a new twist on the ebook reader that failed time and time again. Brave move or naive pipedream?

I won’t go into the detailed technical specs since the Machinist does it so well but want to understand how and where this could be useful in today’s world.

Pros:

• Lightweight way to carry a lot of information, this could be a lifesaver on the train, tube, in crowded spaces and on long journeys.
• Easy way - in theory - to acquire new books without having to physically visit a bookshop or wait for an order to arrive. Less sure of it in practice if you’re outside of urban America, since wireless is provided by Sprint’s EVDO network.
• As a fellow blogger says, “I have on my bookshelf The Great war For Civilization: the Conquest of the Middle East […] written pre-Gulf War 2. Wouldn’t it be absolutely marvelous if the book updated itself for a modest fee on publication of a second edition? Or if my Wrox ASP.Net 2.0 magically jumped versions to 3.0 0r 3.5? that would be great.”
• A mother and non-geek says “Finally, a tech toy that isn’t meant for techies!!! I couldn’t be happier to read about the Kindle. I was wondering what to get my daughter for Christmas and now I know. She’s a third year law student and lugs A MOUNTAIN of heavy books to school, which is a 90 minute commute. With all those textbooks, it’s really hard for her to take casual reading material with her, too. This will be perfect! I think all you geeks are wrong on this one.”

Cons:

• DRM around all Kindle books: Forget lending a book to a friend, moving it to another device, buying it as a present for someone else
• Device not particularly open to other formats: The lack of PDF support kills it for me, since I’d expect to, at the very least, be able to read whitepapers and reports on it without having to bend over backwards.
• Reading on screen still not the same as on paper, the feel, the smell and the ability to scribble or annotate.
• The web browser and RSS reader seem unnecessary: The browser is limited at best, as Russell reports, and RSS feeds are paid for. Paid for?! Seriously, what were they smoking when they decided that people would be willing to pay a monthly fee to read RSS feeds which one can read for free on a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, iPod touch. I doubt a Kindle buyer wouldn’t already have one of these devices already…

I’m a total bookworm, especially on holiday yet, somehow, I can’t picture myself laying on a deck chair on my next holiday and pulling out my Kindle to read a few lines of The Devil Wears Prada, really.

Now, a device open to other formats, with no wireless, on which content can purely be transferred via USB, without audio or web browser, sold for far less, I would probably consider. It would save me printing so many work documents, and I’d definitely be up for technical books where an update is available when technologies evolve. Imagine how many trees we could save!

I’ll reserve final judgement for the day I get my hands on one of them - If a kind soul wants to lend me one, I’m willing! - but until then, I think it’s an interesting addition to the world of handhelds but not one I’d currently be likely to buy, even as a hopeless gadget addict.

For more reading on the Kindle:

• Dive Into Mark’s “The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts)” draws some interesting parallels between Amazon’s own words from the past, some classic 1984 quotes and the current Kindle announcement.
• Mike’s review shows he’s not totally sold on the idea either…
• Diego’s second review
• Of course, Scoble’s also got an opinion on this…

[tags]Amazon, Kindle, eBooks, wireless, Taptu, mobile, technology[/tags]

One hundred Carnivals. One hundred weeks of insightful posts and sharp reviews.

Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino of MobHappy who started it all back in Oct 2005. Along with Rudy De Waele they were original the visionaries. Finally Judy Breck and Troy Norcross for keeping the carnival going, week after week.

This milestone Carnival is hosted by Abhishek Tiwari in Santa Cruz, and covers topics from Google Android’s implications for the mobile world to the evolution of 3.5G HSDPA, amongst others.

Here’s a cheer to 100 more Carnivals!

Several people asked me about the implications of Google’s launch of Android this week. Here’s my take on it.

• Google is finding it hard to replicate its successful desktop search model in the mobile world.
• One of the big barriers, as Google see it, is the continued presence of walled gardens erected by the mobile operators which interfere with Google’s ability to reach out to consumers directly with an optimised search experience.
• Another key barrier Google sees is a lack of understanding by handset manufacturers of what it takes to truly turn the handset into a useful mobile internet device.
• Google see a more capable mobile browser across the widest possible range of handsets as a key enabler for better mobile search. Not just on high end devices like the iPhone and N95, but right across the handset market.
• Android is an initiative that if successful would break down a number of these barriers in one fell swoop.

Will Android be successful? I wouldn’t completely rule it out, but I remain cautious…

Not very much has been said about exactly what Android contains and what it doesn’t contain. Does it have a complete user interface layer? Does it integrate a full set of phone applications (SMS, MMS, IM etc)? Does it include a 3G protocol stack? The lack of a complete solution would make it very expensive to bring an Android handset to market compared to Symbian and Microsoft.

From a technical perspective Google’s platform reminds me of Savaje (US-based mobile OS startup, now defunct) and the operator-led Open Mobile Terminal Platform Alliance (Java-based OS, initially implemented on HTC devices).

With the OMTP Alliance, the operators wanted to weaken the grip of Nokia and Microsoft on the phone OS, and get control over the user experience. Google’s Open Handset Alliance is an attempt to build similar industry support, but has notably fewer operators participating.

Getting a new OS into significant volume i.e. 10s of millions of new handsets is a massive engineering undertaking. Are Google resourced to deliver this? They have plenty of software engineers, but not too many mobile software engineers.

Android is an initiative without a business model. In my experience, these kinds of strategic initiatives don’t get sustained unless the business model is clearly defined.