iPhone unleashed

An iPhone (8GB) arrived a week or so ago from the US, it's very pretty. Unfortunately a US iPhone is the UK is as useful as a slim shiny brick.

A friend unbricked it (using the commercial AnySIM package - not recommended for beginners, even though it's commercial, it's far from easy getting an iPhone into an unlocked state) and then installed the AppInstaller.

AppInstaller is a nice piece of software that manages 3rd party iPhone packages, it checks back with a repository and then pulls in whatever's required. It can also check for updated packages. At the moment any dependency checking is manual, but they're bound to fix it.

Then put all the settings in for the UK network, and it all worked. Seems there's quite a few E.D.G.E. cells around, though speeds are no where near 3G which is a shame.

The user interface is fantastic, especially the two fingered zoom and the rotating screen depending on the orientation of the phone.

It even works as a phone pretty well.

As an iPod it syncs with iTunes, but can sync all your contacts (from Address Book on Macs or Outlook on PCs), these are then all available through the phone itself. Though you can add address book entries, it doesn't seem to allow downloading vCards into the phone - which is a real shame.

Calendar entries are also synced.

Though it's a nice piece or ergnomic engineering, the total cost of ownership on an O2 contract is going to be off-putting.

N&S Admin Fees List 2007/08 | Ofcom

N&S Admin Fees List 2007/08 | Ofcom

Ofcom has published a list of Telecoms companies that pay admin fees to Ofcom, they are: -

Alternative Networks Plc
AT&T Global Network Services UK
Band X Ltd
Sky Subscriber Services Ltd
British Telecommunications Plc
Cable & Wireless Plc
Carphone Warehouse PLC
CityLink Telecommunications Ltd
Colt Telecom Group Ltd
Eckoh Technologies Plc
Eircom UK Ltd
Fibernet Ltd
France Telecom Network Services UK Ltd
Fujitsu Services Ltd
Gamma Telecommunications Ltd
Genesis Communications Ltd
Global Crossing (UK)
Globecast Northern Europe Ltd
Hutchison 3G UK Ltd
IDT Global Ltd
Intercity Mobile Communications Ltd
Interoute Communications Ltd
KDDI Europe Ltd
Kingston Communications Ltd
Level 3 Communications Ltd
MLL Telecom Ltd
National Grid Wireless Ltd
Net Services Plc
O2 UK Ltd
Opera Telecom Ltd
Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd
PageOne Communications Ltd
Pipex Communications Plc
Plusnet Plc
PNC Telecom Services Ltd
Primus Telecommunications Ltd
Reach Europe Ltd
Redstone Communications Ltd
RM Plc
Siemens Enterprise Communications Ltd
SingTel (Europe) Limited
Sprintlink UK Ltd
SSE Telecommunications Ltd
Stratos Global Holdings Ltd
Surf Telecoms Ltd
Telecom Direct Ltd
Telecom Italia UK Ltd
Telecom NZ (UK) Licenses Ltd
Telecom Plus Plc
Teleglobe International Ltd
TeliaSonera International Carrier UK Ltd
Tesco Stores Ltd
Thus plc
Tiscali UK Ltd
T-Mobile (UK) Ltd
Transcomm UK Ltd
Verizon UK Ltd (MCI)
Virgin Media Ltd
Vodafone Ltd
VTL (UK) Ltd
Zen Internet Ltd

Though Telecom License fees (as per the Telecommunications Act) were scrapped when the Communications Act came into force, bigger players and players that have "the code" (code powers as was, which allows them to dig - potentially without the landowners permission - by getting a court order) still have to pay fees.

As consolidation increases, the list will diminish.

Apple iLife/iWork '08 and Leopard

I recently upgraded my MacOS X 10.4(.11) PowerBook G4 with iLife '08 and iWork '08. Unfortunately Apple charge for these and OS upgrades don't always upgrade your original versions if you haven't upgraded.

Many of the changes are minor, but there are some big ones, there's now much tighter integration with .Mac (which requires a seperate subscription). iMovie doesn't upgrade unless you have a reasonably fast Mac (the G4 Powerbook didn't cut the mustard).

iWork '08 is a much more significant upgrade, there's a new application "Numbers" which is Apple's answer to Excel. It isn't there yet and it's not completely compatible, though supporting most of the basic features. It seems to be designed for marketing execs who like to produce all sorts of fancy graphs. Pages (the word processor) is also more suited to doing fancy sheets like flyers or greeting cards, though it will read MS Word (and other format) documents. Keynote (presentations) is a very sophisticated presentation tool in its own right, arguably it has more sophisticated animations and transitions that MS Powerpoint (and will happily read Powerpoint files too and export them). Apple use Keynote for all their public presentations and it's pretty slick, though Powerpoint users will have to go through a learning exercise to migrate.

Newbies (new users) will probably find all the iWork packages relatively easy to use if they haven't been sucked into using MS products already.

Briefly, Leopard (MacOS X 10.5.0) is a significant upgrade. There are some genuinely innovative features (however some bits look a lot like Vista). Coverflow can be used to scan for files (like iTunes artwork) but MacOS actually previews the content of the file while scanning and it supports a lot of formats, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint (or Keynote), Movies etc. If the 'space-bar' is hit while viewing a file, then then content of the document can be previewed (i.e. all the pages of a PDF or slides in a presentation seen). It isn't possible to actually edit the files unless you have the relevent package installed though.

Leopard can do the same thing across a network and scan both Windows PCs and other Macs (well public shares anyway). If a remote user is using iChat, then it can be used to send/receive files between users and remotely control the remote Mac (if the user allows it).

There are many low level enhancements and the OS is now truly 64bit (well almost). This should make things faster on 64 bit machines (G5's or newer Intel systems). There doesn't seem a noticable speed increase on the Powerbook G4, but a MacBook Pro did seem slightly more responsive.

Time machine is Apple's new back-up system. It can save a complete copy of the installed system on to a locally connected drive (internal on a MacPro, or externally on laptops via USB or Firewire), it will also save to an Xserve running Leopard server (in a workgroup situation). The drive needs to be significantly bigger than the drive that is backed-up as once the original data is saved, incremental back-ups are performed. It does this in a reasonably clever manner, so only changed files are saved, but looking at a back-up shows the complete directory structure as was on the disk at the time. Any file saved can easily be restored by just going back the time-line to before the delete occurred.

It's also possible to completely restore a Mac (say if the hard disk is replaced) as the OS now has a restore from Time Machine type option.

2 million copies of Leopard have been sold in the first weekend, which is pretty astounding feat for an operating system, older Macs will gain less of advantage than newer ones with 64bit CPUs and decent graphics systems.

Green Blue

GreenBlue is a nonprofit institute that stimulates the creative redesign of industry by focusing the expertise of professional communities to create practical solutions, resources, and opportunities for implementing sustainability.

Eco-tourists save forest ‘jewels’ from bulldozers [Times Online]

Video: Ted Talk Alex Steffen: Inspired ideas for a sustainable future

Video: William McDonough, 'Sustainability' Architect at a Bioneers Conference

Mobile Communications onboard Aircraft - Consultation on the introduction of mobile services on aircraft | Ofcom

Mobile Communications onboard Aircraft - Consultation on the introduction of mobile services on aircraft | Ofcom

It's a bit old as the announcement got lost in the INBOX, however Ofcom is consulting on mobile services on aircraft (MCA).

This would involve putting one or more pico or femto cells on an aircraft which would then use satellite to connect back to a ground based BSC (basestation controller). Satellite phone on planes are already in-use, but this would allow for users to utilse their existing mobile phones - both voice and data could be supported.

Planes already have to use licensed spectrum for other services and these are managed by the CAA (under remit from Ofcom) and Ofcom are proposing that although a specific license would be required and issued by the CAA, no additional fees would be required.

Airlines would be able to get licenses on request and the technical and authorisation schemes would be agreed by ECC, ETSI and endorsed by RSC and COCOM.

MCA would be allocated non-geographic international mobile network codes issued by the ITU specific to aircraft services.

As an operator of telecoms services (or more precisely Electronic Communications Services) airlines would be subject to the standard obligations under the General Conditions of Entitlement (so they'd have to support wire-tapping for example).

The consultation closes on 30th Nov 2007.

Japan to Give US$10 Mln to New Fund to Save Forests [Planet Ark]

Wacom Cintiq 12WX

Wacom has launched a £700 tablet the Cintiq 12WX.

It has a 12.1" display and comes with a pressure sensitive pen, it's equivalent to a Intuous3 with an in-built display.

Aimed at professional users who want a realistic drawing surface, the display resolution is 1280 x 800, then pen has 1024 levels of sensitivity and there are several colour profiles.

It has a VGA and DVI interface so can act as a second or even third display for most systems (though it can be used as a primary display).

It can be used for "touching-up" graphics accurately, though white-boarding also seems a logical use.

£700 is considerably cheaper than previous models.

Apple to unlock iPhone

Steve Jobs has announced that the iPhone will eventually allow 3rd party apps to be installed, but not just yet.

Apple are hoping to release an iPhone SDK in February 2008 but are still wary about exposing the phone to viruses, malware etc.

This seems an about turn and it looks like they're giving in to consumer pressure, though running MacOS X (though an embedded variant) means it's likely anyone who can program for MacOS X should can do so for the iPhone.

Gore, U.N. panel share Nobel Peace Prize for fighting global warming

LinkedIn hits 1m UK users

LinkedIn has hit 1m UK users. This is a pretty astounding achievement for a business networking site, it also means they must be running out of UK customers too.

Though other social networking sites are growing at a much faster rate (think Facebook), they are targetting a more generic audience.

LinkedIn is very good for connecting to business colleagues and keeping track of what they are doing, who's hiring etc.

How Baboons Think (Yes, Think) (NY Times)

Green For All: Ella Baker Center Launches a Bold National Initiative

San Jose Mayor Reed Launches San Jose's Green Vision to Improve Environment and Develop Jobs

Bootcamp to expire

Apple's Bootcamp system (which allows Windows or MacOS X to run on Apple hardware) will expire when the next version of MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard) is launched.

Bootcamp is currently offered as a beta download.

Bootcamp differs from Parallels or VMWare's offering in that it encapsulates a Windows partition on the hard disk and allows a Windows operating system to boot or MacOS X. Parallels is a virtual machine which runs inside MacOS X, allowing a Windows OS to run in parallel with MacOS X (there's a reason why they called it Parallels).

BT invests in FON

BT has invested in the Spanish company FON. BT state this is to increase wireless coverage, but it could also be a way to increase use of their Fusion packages which haven't really taken off in a big way (Fusion is BT's converged mobile service which allows a mobile phone to roam on to a [Bluetooth in a home environment] WiFi gateway).

FON sells or gives away WiFi access points preconfigured to work with FON and these allow the user to set-up whether they'll give free or charged access to their broadband services.

O2 to allow "free" access to social networking sites

During October and November O2 is going to allow free mobile data access to social networking sites MySpace and Facebook, after which it will encourage users to sign-up to it's unlimited data plans (which aren't really unlimited at all, but nothing new there).

It's the old system of getting users hooked and then charging them for the service, but they'll probably attract quite a few users to their data plans this way.

O2 are also going to launch their broadband services soon (they bought Be a while back), some of which will be free if the monthly mobile spend is high enough.

3Com launches Asterisk based SMB IP PBX

3Com has launched a $1,600 30-user Asterisk appliance based IP PBX.

It's essentially just a resale of the Asterisk appliance by 3Com, but it's sold and supported by 3Com.

The Asterisk IP PBX is a great piece of software (it's available for download from the Asterisk website), but it's not for the feint hearted. It runs on Linux and is reasonably complex to set-up. Unfortunately documentation is severely lacking (though there are some good books out there from publishers like O'Reilly and various websites like VoIP Info) and often a response is "look in the code".

Having "real" vendors support Asterisk means it will get into the mainstream markets and that's likely to produce some good documentation.

As the 3Com unit is a pre-installed system, configuration is a lot simper and newer versions of Asterisk come with a web based configuration system. Though that takes some of the fun out of hand writing dial-plans - which may change the definition of fun.

Talklets, making the web speak

The world of cinema changed when silent movies became talkies, now the same is (slowly) happening with the web. A UK company Textics has developed Talklets accessibility enabling technology.

Talklets is actually a web based service that can perform text-to-speech and a website owner only needs to put Javascript tags on the site which enables a Talklets toolbar which controls the text-to-speech system. It also allows for other functionality such as "right-click" floating toolbars which can be configured per site, the standard toolbar will allow offer the user a dictionary or theasurus look-up on the word the mouse is over. In future it will also allow per site lexicons which can allow for local "buzzwords" to be explained.

Talkets can also take RSS feeds and convert them to MP3s, which is like having a local newsreader.

Textics is part of the Hidden Differences Group which is a company that is trying to make the web accessible, in the UK 20% of the population at least have reading difficulties. Developing countries have an even higher percentage that cant read but almost everyone can speak.

RIPA goes live

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act has actually been live for a while, but from today all telecoms companies must store records of all phone calls (and mobile networks SMS messages) for a year.

Though the actual conversation are not recorded (and SMS messages are not saved), but the caller and called numbers (and how long they talked) must be stored, for SMS the origination and destination number are stored.

Telcos have always stored the data (they use it for billing), but it's now who has access to it which comes into force. Around 650 organisations will be able to request records under the RIP Act, from normal agencies such as government, police, security forces to councils and even the charity commission and various quangos.

It's been slipped through as "helping to fight terrorism" ...

Ofcom tries to ensure the future of Sitefinder

Sitefinder is Ofcom's database of mobile cell sites. The mobile network operators (MNOs) used to supply data on a voluntary basis which contained the location of cells.

Ofcom was forced to make extra data available that showed cell sectors and transmitter power etc. after a freedom of information request, though Ofcom resisted it went to the Information Tribunal and Ofcom lost.

Since Sitefinder is populated voluntarily, the MNOs felt they were giving away competetively sensitive information and have stopped providing new information.

Ofcom is urging the MNOs to continue populating Sitefinder and is also appealing the Information Tribunal’s decision so that in future sensitive information does not need to be released.

Sitefinder is an important database as it helps Ofcom conduct its duties as a regulator, having stale data reduces that usefulness.