My first BlackBerry was a 7100v, the first that had the slim form factor and two letters per key - which despite what anyone says, is still more uncomfortable than a full-sized thumb pad. After a couple of years, I have returned to the BlackBerry (but still keep a Nokia N93 handy for pictures & video), getting an 8708v from Vo…

I got a tip today that Fon is looking at launching a new router with a LAN port, apart from the WAN port found in the current Fonera (they seem to privately admit not having a LAN passthrough was a rather big mistake). With the current Fonera,  you cannot access devices on the wired side of the network  (such as a SAN drive or p…

So, the  great news  over at  TechCrunch  today was that Google has added a feature called  Mail Fetcher  to Gmail, which basically allows you to grab email from other services, such as Yahoo. This sounds great, and it probably is for Gmail users, but it is also great for Google. Someone with legal wits should point a browser towa…

Went to my local  Vodafone  store to pick up the new  Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem , which with a 49 Euro monthly contract gives you 1GB of transfer at 1Mbps maximum, and free mobile to fixed landline calls - pretty good deal if you ask me. For 59 Euro you get 5GB of transfer, at the full 3.8Mbps that HSDPA offers. These are theore…

Robert Scoble  writes about whether having a decent WiFi connection at a conference is  something that important  and concludes that if you can afford the $3500 price tag to get in, you can also afford an $80 a month Verizon mobile data plan.  Ethan Kaplan thinks it is important , and I agree, but for different motives. What Robe…

Reading  The Daily WTF  today, a neat site that posts screw-ups made by programmers and tech management, I noticed the owner mentions his new company,  HiddenNetwork.com . What strikes me is that they are targeting bloggers straight on, paying them to run a JavaScript banner that links to job offers, paid for by the employers look…

Today I decided to attempt a second round at configuring the router  FON  sent me a few days ago since my first out-of-the-box experience hadn’t been that good. Emails to tech support unanswered, which seems to  be   an   endemic   problem ,  as   can   be   seen   on   FON’s   forums , I finally gave up. After plugging in the W…

One has to wonder  when you read news like this , where Orange France is stating that their 500MB per month data plan, tied to the iPhone, excludes pretty much everything other than email and web browsing. So no VoIP, modem access for your laptop, or even newsgroups (??). In Spain, Vodafone has been toting 5GB/month plans for so…

No pun intended, honestly, but Tony Smith’s article on  The Register’s RegHardware  ‘ How to get your Wi-Fi working again , while making a nice and broad effort at examining the problems plaguing WiFi nowadays, and reviewing several options to improve your experience around WiFi, also uses somewhat pseudoscientific methods to meas…

Leaving aside regulatory issues that may turn this particular setup into an illegal operation, I will better not describe the quality of the installation to be polite. Check out this picture: Spotted the problem yet? Radio antennas are affected by any element that is present around them, even non-metallic elements, such as the gro…

Not much point to .mobi domains in the realms of Verizon, it seems -  the New York Times reports  that starting 2007, ads will be placed on sites that are accessed using their mobile phones. The Verizon Wireless release claims that certain types of ads and video clips will not be allowed, as they may not be compatible with the lim…