Hey - before you head out for the long holiday weekend, don't forget to download the new Drinkspiration app for your iPhone. Provided by adult beverage innovator Absolut, it will help you decide what to drink based on "mood, time of day, weather, liquor type, drink color, shape of glass, type of venue, bar vibe, etc.". It can also show in real time, via GPS and social media, what others are ordering around the world. Read more
Trapeze Networks yesterday announced an interesting innovation in authentication, called RF Firewall, which enhances a feature they've been shipping that does location-based authentication. The new capability allows enterprises to draw a virtual perimeter around a building (or arbitrary portion of a building), locking out those on the outside, and adds support for 802.11n. Read more
I this week attended part of the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, which is dedicated to a broad discussion of the issues surrounding collaborative systems and their impact especially on and within larger organizations.
I must say the organizers, led by my friend and colleague Steve Wylie (we worked together on Interop for several years) did an amazing job of truly building a community around this event, which attracted practitioners from many firms and industries. Read more
AirDefense sent me one of their 1U appliances and a few Model 520 sensors for possible inclusion in the Network World site survey test. Read more
The last in my current series of tests of Wi-Fi tools was just published in Network World, this time on the subject of site surveys. I have for many years urged caution in committing resources to a site survey on the grounds that, as prices for WLAN systems have fallen and performance has so dramatically improved, spending a good deal of time and money on a large-scale planning exercise fundamentally centered on coverage rather than capacity might have less of a return than even a trial-and-error approach. Read more
Agito Networks today announced that they've ported their mobile/mobile unified communications (convergence) client to the BlackBerry. This is a quite an achievement - the various editions of the BlackBerry constitute for many the very definition of a mobile enterprise communicator, and it will remain an important platform for the foreseeable future. Read more
I am always interested in claims of electrosensitivity, which is defined as a negative effect on human health (or at least well-being) from electromagnetic fields. While I've yet to read a definitive study correlating a negative health impact of any form in humans from a consumer-grade electromagnetic field, again, of any form, I'm also always up for a little field work when the opportunity presents itself. Read more
In my Interop show-floor review, I mentioned that Motorola had introduced an interesting Wi-Fi solution for hospitality (and, in fact lots of other markets that might benefit as well, from municipal buildings to prisons) that retrofitted Cat-1 cable for broadband service. A key element here is an AP that fits in a standard electrical wall box, and I noted that I thought this was going to become a trend. That's now happening, and the appeal in undeniable. Read more
Monday's iPhone 3G S announcement was a bit of an anticlimax, and certainly contained no surprises. I mean, a compass app getting top billing? Even the $99 entry-level model was expected. Read more
We're seeing more and more evidence that enterprise-class wireless-LAN system vendors are using management capabilities to define key differences with the competition. It's usually thought that advantages in RF performance primarily serve that role - WLANs have their roots, after all, in the fundamental draw of the black art of radio. And, sure, meaningful differences in both RF (PHY) and upper-layer performance can be realized and often measured, and even sometimes provide product differentiation and advantage. Read more
New investment in technology is reportedly down this year, like everything else, but venture capitalists (VCs) are still plowing cash into wireless and mobile. The general idea in venture investing, which is almost always high-risk, is to build a fund, parcel it out after careful due diligence, and hope that at least a couple of the investments in the fund will be home runs. The time horizon is at least three or four years, and the thrill of participating in a start-up (which is even better than being an analyst, I might add) is part of the bargain. Read more
As you can tell by my Chairing the Green Mobility Session at Interop , I have a strong interest in power conservation and getting the most out of a battery. So, while it may not be possible to significantly advance the capabilities of batteries themselves, as I previously noted, there’s a lot we can do to maximize battery life on the demand side. Read more
I had a briefing with a new industry trade association on Friday that really gave me pause - and a lot of concern - about the nature of services that the carriers will offer as we transition from 3G to 4G. I don't want to overreact here, but it may be time, once again, for the policymakers and regulators to think about doing their jobs. Read more
While I work primarily on the Mobile Business Conference at Interop, there are always a few interesting items to be found at the Expo, aka the show floor. The event appeared quite well-attended, and at times even crowded, a bit surprising given the downbeat economy. And, being an omnibus networking event, one had to dig a little to get to the wireless stuff - but I found a few interesting items, as follows: Read more
Is the iPhone the only handset that Read more
matters? Maybe. Last night we held a wireless and mobile session at
the Interop 2009 Unconference, which is essentially a two-hour, beer-fueled, vigorous discussion of
what real IT practitioners (the participants) are doing in
enterprises large and small. Now, I'm not going to tell you that
everyone universally thought the iPhone was well on the way to
dominating the handset space in enterprises across the board, but I
I am once again very pleased to have Read more
the opportunity to Chair the Mobile Business Conference at Interop
2009
in Las Vegas, going on this week. This is the wireless and mobile
part of the one of the largest independent business technology events
in the world. Someone once said that this conference would be COMDEX
if we just added PCs, which we wouldn't, of course, and, regardless, this is a
much more technical IT event than COMDEX ever was. COMDEX was ultimately
Want a free cellphone and free service? It's yours if you qualify - check out this link. Read more
Well-known Wi-Fi mesh vendor Meraki today announced an interesting approach to enterprise-class wireless LANs with its new Enterprise Wireless LAN product line. What's interesting here is their novel "controller as a service" approach, whereby key infrastructure functions are provided via servers over the Internet. Read more
Today's announcement of the brand-new Wireless Gigabit Alliance (AKA WiGig or WGA) (this site is not quite live as of this posting) brings the tantalizing possibility of wireless LANs with multi-gigabit speeds decidedly closer than I'd previously thought. Read more
I've written a bunch of articles over the years on software-defined radio (SDR), which is essentially the art of building electronics that can mimic a particular radio technology via software running on appropriate high-performance or otherwise specialized processors. The idea has obvious appeal - imagine a handset that can be a CDMA, GSM, LTE, Wi-Fi, DVB-H (or other digital broadcast), Bluetooth, or whatever radio, just by firing up the appropriate code on a common hardware platform. Pretty cool, huh? Read more
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Mathias is a principal at Farpoint Group, a wireless advisory firm in Ashland, Mass.
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