There are uber numbers of in-depth columns and video reviews of the HTC G1 so this is not going to be one of them, just sharing my 14-days with a G1.

My LG VX-8000 on the Verizon network was on its last legs so I decided to switch to T-Mobile with the belief that their network had matured, this since my friend went with their service two years ago. I have a 15-day trial period which ends tomorrow from which to decide if I want to keep the service and get locked into a two-year contract.

It is going to come right down to the wire as I am the undecided voter when it comes to my choice for the next two years.

Android
The platform is very nice and suits my style of working and accessing information. I did not need the manual as pretty much everything is intuitive and easy to navigate. There are some hidden tricks which I found from a well informed and nice rep at the store. More importantly, its platform openness jives with my sense that the market should decide which apps rise and fall, not one guy in Silicon Valley, kinda like a free market guy here.

So, the OS and UI has been a positive experience...

The Device
Here I have mixed feelings, I like the basic form factor however, the plastic seems somewhat cheap and I'd prefer a nice metal back and side bezels. I did wrap the device right away with a Zagg protective set. It does work however, you'll need a degree in wrapping or hands of a surgeon to make it all perfect. Also, from a functional perspective and having had a Blackberry I am use to a keyboard no matter that its not perfect with that hump on the right.

So, could be better here but workable and more importantly, its not hunt and peck...

The Network
Well no mixed feelings here, I am not happy with the T-Mobile network no matter how much it may have improved over the past two years. I am located in and around the number one market in the country, New York City. Since last Saturday their 3G network has been down and I've had problems with making and receiving calls. Something happening in Brooklyn that crashed the network, this according to their technical support reps that have all been professional. I've had people call to get recordings that my device is not registered on the network, yikes Batman. I've had dropped calls and even found they had dinged my minutes for all my tech support calls. To their credit, they put it all back and more however, I am left with a dilemma.

So, unlike the election, I am left with no good choices here....

Do I go back to Verizon, the company with the most boring devices on the market bar none? (Though the RIM Storm is due out in a couple of weeks, pricing not announced, and will I like its slow browser and virtual keyboard?) Do I unlock my G1, pay the full rate for the platform and bring it back to Verizon which at least has a solid network, or do I stick it out with the hope that T-Mobile is going through adolescences and they will come out of it soon?

Decisions, decisions, figuring out who to vote for President today was a snap compared to this...

image c. Fotolio

By Levi Shapiro

It doesn't take a vivid imagination to predict what the No. 1 topic will be after the November election: the weak economy and how to improve return on investments. While a slow-down in advertising spending represents an unprecedented opportunity to migrate ad dollars to the mobile space, that will not happen until standardized measurement systems are in place. For example, last month Chrysler's CMO Deborah Meyer announced 30 percent of the embattled car-company's ad-spend will move to digital. Unfortunately, it was also reported spending for "experimental" platforms, including mobile, would be cut in half. Mobile advertising desperately needs a unified measurement standard to help brands, agencies and publishers quantify ROI.

History suggests the process is slow. Although the first TV commercial aired July 1, 1941 (a 10-second billboard with voice-over for Bulova during a baseball game), it was 10 more years before the A.C. Nielsen Company's Audimeter became the industry's recognized standard for television audience measurement.

For their part, agencies are frustrated. "What is most glaringly absent is a mobile equivalent of persistent cookie tracking," said Dr. Yaakov Kimelfeld, senior vice president and director of Analytics at Mediavest. "Without unified tracking, mobile campaigns are destined to exist in some parallel world." He also said he believes online criteria, like click-throughs and downloads, "play only a marginal role in decisions to increase mobile budgets. The metrics that matter vary in each case, depending on the campaign."

Continue reading "Mobile Advertisers Demand Unified Measurement Standards" »

September 23, 2008, New York City. This morning, the first Android based mobile device is being rolled out. Based on Google's operating platform, the Android G1 is aiming to assimilate users who might otherwise look to the iPhone.

To view the press conference, visit: Andriod Press Conference

For more information about development, see: Android - Open Handset Alliance Project

For more information about HTC, Visit: HTC Press Release

HTC Specs on G1, visit G1 Specs

Additional Coverage about Android at BBC News

Continue reading "Android T-Mobile G1 Press Conference" »

iStock ™

Rod Serling, producer of "The Twilight Zone" television series once commented, "It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is incisive and probing when every twelve minutes is interrupted by 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper". Although we may not like advertising, the reality is that a variety of the most successful video delivery platforms, from television to the internet to mobile, have reached their success when pricing was reduced through advertising. The upcoming national launch of WiMax (the next generation of mobile broadband) in the United States presents an opportunity for content owners to reach audiences on any device, anywhere. Low pricing, supported through advertising, can help spur the adoption of WiMax.

WiMax is often called "Wi-Fi on steroids". While Wi-Fi is a short-range system that uses unlicensed spectrum and does not assure Quality of Service, WiMAX is long-range, covering many kilometers, uses licensed spectrum and provides guaranteed Quality of Service. That can be at 60mph in your car, your laptop, your phone or any other device with an Internet connection.

Continue reading "WiMax, Advertising Goes Here" »

By: Levi Shapiro

iStock ® stock image

Cuban-American mommy-to-be Gloria Dobal "loved everything" about online pregnancy site Baby Center. However, she had difficulty sharing the experience with family members who prefer Spanish. "My mother is from Cuba and I wanted her to enjoy this with me," she said. After two days, Gloria switched to Baby Center En Espanol (www.babycenterenespanol.com) and its mobile version. Although the sector is still nascent, some brands and agencies are beginning to target Hispanics with mobile tools and campaigns.

The numbers suggest an attractive demographic for mobile marketing. Nielsen's Q2 Mobile Advertising Report cites Hispanic data users as more likely (41% compared with 30%) to recall seeing ads on mobile phones and more likely (22% vs. 13%) to have responded. Moreover, according to ComScore m:metrics, Hispanics significantly over-index on mobile content consumption (71%) compared with the market average (48%). Brian Colbert, VP of mobile sales at ESPN, comments that in "all things mobile, the Hispanic audience over-indexes quite a bit."

Ansible Mobile President Larry Harris (who previously ran multi-cultural advertising at Bank of America) advises "the most important best practice is to consider what's in it for the consumer. The focus has to be on great content, integrated within an existing strategy and traditional DM at the local level." Ansible worked with a variety of agencies on J&J's mobile Spanish version of Baby Center (before there was even an English version) and attracted 4,000 active users, including Gloria Dobal. "Content is king," says Larry. "Just offering a short-code is not enough." The mobile program achieved opt-in retention of 93% last year and 85% this year.

Continue reading "Targeted mobile marketing and Hispanics" »

By Levi Shapiro

Jim Messer started Transverse last year in New York with a cadre of wireless industry veterans. This year, the company relocated to Austin. "We found everything we need in Austin-- at happy-hour prices. My commute is 10 minutes and I get double the house I had in San Diego for half the price". The combination of technical talent, creative culture and low costs has made Austin the newest hotbed in the wireless industry.

Take a walk down 6th Street and in addition to live music at The Dizzy Rooster, "Kinky Friedman for Governor" posters and fried pickle spears at Katz's Deli, you will probably see signs saying "Keep Austin Weird". Austin's development owes as much to its vibrant, bohemian culture as the concentration of tech companies like Dell, Qualcomm, Siemens, Intel, AT&T, IBM, Motorola, Apple, AMD, ARM, Marvel, Borland, Google, PayPal, Vignette, Texas Instruments, SD Micro, Silicon Labs, Broadcom, Freescale, nVidia, Trilogy, etc. In his groundbreaking book "The Rise of the Creative Class" (Basic Books, 2002), Professor Richard L. Florida correlated the density of "Bohemian Clusters" with a city's economic development. Austin has attracted wireless entrepreneurs by offering an eclectic, tolerant alternative to the sterility of Silicon Valley- which author Joel Kotkin calls "Nerdistan".

Continue reading "Austin Round-Up: The New Hotbed for Mobile" »

 

 
Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) and LG Electronics are moving closer to the adoption of their MPH™ (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld) standard for mobile devices. With a decision by the ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) due in late 2008
 

Jay Adrick, Vice President of Broadcast Technology for Harris Broadcast addressed some questions about the proposed MPH standard as relates to TV broadcasters.
 
IpTVe
Currently, how many broadcast stations are in trials of the MPH platform?
 
Jay Adrick
MPH is currently on the air on two stations in Chicago, WCPX (owned by ION) and WPWR (owned by Fox), plus the Capitol Broadcasting Station WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since February 2007, U.S. MPH trials have also been conducted in Columbus, OH; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas, NV; and San Jose, CA.
 
IpTVe
Are broadcasters in the U.S. the primary trial sites?
 
Jay Adrick
The ATSC is the Digital Television standard in much of North and South America. Any country or broadcast following the ATSC standard could adopt MPH. Tests have been done in Mexico and Argentina. Canada is also very interested in the technology.

Continue reading "Jay Adrick, Vice President of Broadcast Technology for Harris Broadcast talks about MPH™ (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld)" »

 
WRAL-TV Raleigh, North Carolina (a Capital Broadcasting Company) likes to be first when it comes to new broadcast technology testing and deployment.

The first U.S station awarded an experimental HD license by the FCC, (June 1996)

Claimed to have produced the first live sports program in HD (on September 6, 1997)

First HD newscast (on October 28, 1998) stats via Wikipedia

July, 2008 WRAL has just concluded trials of MPH or Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld mobile video technology, developed by Harris Corporation in concert with LG Electronics.

Jimmy Goodmon, CBC New Media Group Director of Technology gave us more granularity about their dierction for MPH.
   

IpTVe
How long do you anticipate the trials to last and do you have a soft launch date for going live?
 
Jimmy Goodmon
We completed the trials last week and were impressed with the results. In terms of a soft launch date the answer is nothing is set in stone right now. There are way too many variables in place for us to make an estimate on a launch date (be it soft or not). One of those variables playing a role in terms of when we go live with mobile TV is the availability of receivers. Since mobile TV enabled devices are projected to be in stores sometime in 2009 we will have to wait until that time to better gauge the market.
 

Continue reading "WRAL-TV, leading broadcasters towards MPH™ (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld)" »

An entirely new medium
by Levi Shapiro

Patrick Maurer is no techie. "I can barely work my toaster", says the lanky 29 year old sales rep with the self-described "tennis player" hairstyle. But Patrick may represent the most promising aspect of mobile marketing- mobile video advertising. While checking his mobile Yahoo account, Patrick watched a video from Jaguar that eventually led to a dealer test-drive. "I hadn't really looked at the Jag before that", he said. The opportunity for brands to tell their story with sight, sound and motion has agencies and advertisers eager to experiment with mobile video advertising. This nascent sector probably has the necessary technology to grow. What is lacking now are clearly defined business processes.

Walk into any Sprint, Verizon or AT&T store and most of the phones will have video capability. According to NPD, 60% of multimedia handsets sold to US consumers in Q1 have video functionality. Although some consumers are watching paid subscription services like MediaFlo, MobiTV, Sprint TV and VCast, ComScore m:metrics notes that 3 times as many- over 15 million people- watched video clips forwarded by friends and family. The proportion is similar in Europe.

Continue reading "Mobile Video Advertising" »

Dr. Ronald Herberman, The Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers issued an advisory specific to long-term cell phone use. In their news release and interview on Kdka.TV Doctor Herberman stated that a ten year study with the participation of the cell phone industry was needed to obtain the required scientific data to determine the actual effects on humans and especially children.

Editorial:

Today's New York Times has an article which revisits the question of a possible link between cell phone use and cancer.

While I am not going to debate the science, I draw from a personal experience with contact lenses to make the personal choice here. Back in the day, we were told we could wear lenses thirty days and sleep with them. I developed a corneal ulcer as result, fortunately treatable with no permanent effects. Several years later, the industry came out with new data reversing themselves on extended use.

The Times article even cited the F.D.A. "that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites was about three years, so the research doesn't answer questions about long-term exposures."

Point, what we don't know is what concerns me with respect to cell phone usage over time and a headset seems like a simple and prudent measure. The article also questions if children who face a lifetime of use, (likely heavy users from what I notice) are they potential at greater risk from our lack of long term studies?

If not already in place, the industry should fund long term clinical studies and be as transparent as possible on the subject, it will only serve to boost their economic interests in the long run.

Levi Shapiro addresses 2007 & Q1 2008 Mobile Content Data Market Figures

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Click on image for slide show

Solaiemes is a mobile start-up focused on delivering live handset to web experiences, this via their web page widget pushed through custom configured servers. Currently, only operating in Europe, they are positioning themselves for the U.S when upstream speeds improve beyond 64 kbps. They see market opportunities in law enforcement and real estate however, other ideas would certainly develop.

Continue reading "Solaiemes" »

A trio of Austrian students, called iBand have made two significant points using hacked iphones to record original music, 1. Out of the gate Apple should have released their platform to developers 2. PDA's, AIO's (all in one's) are being pushed beyond their original concept to create new forms of communication and art.

Forget the music is rudamentary in nature or (lacks more drums as one person wrote on their site), If you extrapolate on this original work to incorporate live video calls, mashed up video and music, both original and commercial it becomes not only art and communication but also commerce which afteral has to be part of the mix

Android developer site