LUX.ET.UMBRA

Ran across a nice little mobile app called CauseWorld. Very cool, since the idea is that large corporations have to donate money towards causes help with philanthropic needs (and write it off on their corporate taxes) and this allows people to shift the money towards causes that they believe in.

It’s somewhat like Foursquare, which is why it’s fun since you basically have to go into stores along the way whenever you have your phone with you, and check in at the store. You only get 10 karma per store, and one check-in per day per store. The beauty of it is that for every 10 karma you collect, you can basically use that to donate towards certain types of good things in the world. Perhaps it’s providing books for learning, or clean water, or even planting a tree, but you get to decide where your karma goes.

Best of all? It costs nothing. Basically just a little fun while you’re out. And it helps allocate the corporate funds towards something you care about. It’s almost like you getting to say what you want to say as a shareholder of a company. And we all know that unless you’re a large stakes player in the stock, most shareholders don’t get to do anything with their little piece of the pie.

In my opinion, this has probably been one of the more fascinating apps that I’ve been able to get a hold of on my Droid. It comes on both Android and iPhone and I’m sure more mobile apps to come. Hopefully there will be a lot more badges, charities, and corporate sponsors in the future since this is just one of those experiments that allow everyone to help change the world a little bit at a time.

Tags: Cellular, Nonprofit by darkmoon
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If you do a lot of online banking and you happen to use Bank of America, you probably have SafePass activated.

Unfortunately for you, there isn’t a very published method on how to fix your SafePass and gain entry back into your online banking if you have recently switched cellular carriers but have kept the same number. If you’ve changed numbers completely, you’ll have to call customer service to deactivate your old number and sign up your new one. But with an existing number that has been ported from another carrier? Seems like you’re up a creek since the SafePass won’t send to the phone.

What you do is, you take the mobile, and text to: 73981. In the body of the text, just text “help” without the quotes and hit send.

Then you wait about 24 hours because their systems don’t update but once a day I suppose. In any case, if you come back and try your SafePass again, it seems to actually work. Now, there apparently has been this issue on and off with iPhones and the like, but with my Droid, that seemed to do the trick in changing out the carriers.

Tags: Cellular, Internet, Tips and Tricks by darkmoon
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Image via Wikipedia

If you didn’t know already, the encryption for GSM’s antiquated algorithm has been cracked. All 64-bits of it. And guess what…. apparently most carriers haven’t upgraded to the 128-bit algorithm because… well, I’m not exactly sure. I suppose security by obscurity is probably the key reasoning behind this, but A5/1 which has been around since 1988 was replaced by the GSM Association in 2007 with A5/3 but most carriers haven’t bothered to upgrade.

It’s not anything spectacular since the 64bit keys were cracked through brute force, and with the computing power these days along with parallel computing, you can pretty much crack the smaller length algorithms through brute force easily. And this doesn’t allow you to listen in on the calls just yet, it just opens the doors to any of the communication that runs on those bands if the carriers haven’t changed the codes on you not to mention the legality of breaking those codes outside of academic research.

There are a couple ways around this problem. One is to upgrade to a larger key such as 128 bit (which is pretty standard considering many banks run SSL certs on 128 bit encryptions). Not the super-safe, but it does create a lot more combinations to guess through brute force. The other way is through the methodology similar to RADIUS with WPA for Wifi. Wifi keys are easily broken, but if you have a service that continuously rotates those keys and makes it a dynamic password, then any hacker is left with a time limit to break in. From a security standpoint, this becomes a more daunting task.

And as far as iPhones are concerned… oh… if you own one and didn’t know already…(as do most of the world’s mobile devices), they run on GSM carriers. But then again, so will Google’s Nexus One.

Tags: Cellular, Hacking, Observation, Opinion, Security, Wireless by darkmoon
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If you have a smartphone, I urge you to check out Waze.

The Android client is a bit new and they’re still working on it, but this is one thing that can totally get you to learn the area you live. Or at least drive it. Waze is basically a social geolocation game where you collect points on the streets you drive, and help map the environment by “road munching” new roads. Basically, you think of it as a real-life Pac Man meets Wikipedia mapping. The more users there are, the better it is and what’s interesting is that you can report hazards, speed traps, police, and all sorts of other things.

While based on the economy, I’m not inclined to drive all over jeebus to road munch, but I have to admit that there are a lot of people that are out there that are doing it.

What’s even more interesting is that you can see the business model and where this could really be fruitful. Garmin or Tomtom anyone? This not only makes cartography a lot easier as far as mistakes go, but it also allows you to not have to wait for a company to come out with the next version of whatever software to actually get the right road name (nudge at Garmin for spelling Raleigh – “Raliegh” on the I-40 Eastbound). It’s like Wikipedia but for maps and the more people that use it, the more fun it is.

Not having touched the iPhone app, I’m curious as far as if it’s better and more user friendly than the one for Android. Overall, the map editor on the web, and Android clients are a little clunky, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed easily. It’s the thought process behind this that counts. And if Waze just happens to give out free things for random driving events like their Christmas event? Then you can entirely count on a lot more users playing this game. I mean, everyone loves free stuff.

Oh. And it does integrate with Foursquare, so you can check-in at your local coffee shop easily from the app itself without having to exit. Or Tweet your location, or what not. Facebook anyone? There’s just so much that can be done with this, that I’m excited just thinking about it. Now if only they could make the client a little less laggy…

Tags: Cellular, Internet, Life, Technology by darkmoon
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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I have to say that with my first couple days with the Droid, I’ve noticed some things that no one else has really bothered to mention. First, if anyone think that this is a contender for the iPhone, I would say that Apple really has some competition. This is definitely the first phone that I’ve touched that overall has a better feel and the apps actually are close enough to really give Jobs some heartburn.

Likes
Very smooth. If you have it linked to your wifi at home, when the signal disappears, it actually switches off to 3G immediately. No fuss, no muss. The interface moves very well. It does lag sometimes if you don’t have the right apps to shut down the apps that you quit from (why you can’t quit from an app is another annoyance that Google has to fix).

I love the notifications. I mean, that’s one thing that iPhone doesn’t do well, and notifications here are out of the way and are there when you want to look at them.

Maps integration and voice dial? Awesome. The entire Car Mobile feature is sweet and I think Garmin itself might have a contender on its hands. I’ll have to test it out more to find out.

The multimedia station sync is great. Immediately, my phone also became my alarm clock. Will have to note to self not to chuck alarm clock across the room…. not that I do that anyways, but still.

Vibrate function is super powerful. Now this might be somewhat annoying and I sorta wish people would make it so that you could control the level of vibrate sometimes, but a powerful vibrate always helps when you’re in a loud place and your phone goes off. There’s nothing more annoying than waiting for a call and missing it because you didn’t feel the vibrate feature. Entirely useless then, isn’t it?

OpenGL support. Android is basically a flavor of linux (don’t believe me? kernel is 2.6.9….), so we shouldn’t be surprised here but that makes 3D gaming and animation completely possible and with the smaller resolutions, you can guarantee some interesting gaming coming your way.

I’m not fond of keyboards, but the hardware keyboard is actually a nice one and compared to my Nokia n810 Wimax, it feels pretty good. The on-screen one could use a little work when it’s trying to detect what you’re trying to type so it corrects it after learning what letters you hit off in portrait mode.

Android Market is awesome. It might be a little more simple compared to the iTunes store, but when people complain about how there’s just not enough apps? From one geek to another, I’m going to say that there’s plenty out there. Plenty. Sometimes I wish open source apps were this easy to find.

Forget the in-the-box browser. Get Dolphin. Know how iPhone users are all talking about how they can zoom and such? Dolphin can do that. Now if only Google put it in all of their apps like Google Maps and such.

Dislikes
I don’t like the fact that BT headsets don’t have voice dialing. This is a problem of Google’s Android OS, and not the phone itself. Very annoying considering it’s a phone built by Motorola, and every past Motorola phone actually had BT voice dialing. This should have been brought up during testing by product development on Motorola’s side since it’s a feature they’ve had since… well, forever.

Don’t like the fact that you can’t quit from an app. Some apps might need to be persistent but out of the box, there are many that don’t have to run in the background. Very annoying out of the box. Fortunately, I went and grabbed Task Manager, and life is good again.

I also don’t like the fact that you can’t group contacts together from different sources. While an auto-merge might be a little crazy, the fact that you can sync your Facebook contact information with your Google accounts means that you’ll get a lot of duplication. Merging the two in a pseudo-group format would make life a lot easier and provide profile shots for those that you didn’t have profile pictures. Personally, I think the Android is missing out here but then again, somehow I doubt the iPhone can do it too (can anyone tell me one way or another? ).

Camera auto-focus. What? Seriously, the time it takes to auto-focus for certain apps, I’d rather do a manual focus feature. Oh wait, you can’t. But seriously now, this sounds like a fix that can be done via firmware.

In portrait mode, the on-screen keyboard is pretty blech. If you have big hands, it’s hard to type with it on there. Fortunately for landscape mode, eh?

Synopsis
It’s really a blanket bomb of my thoughts, but I really don’t see any reasoning why you can’t send text messages and surf and such while on a call like the iPhone commercial. Having worked in the telecommunications industry for over a decade on the infrastructure side, there’s not really any reason that it couldn’t happen unless the phone itself occupies resources that otherwise can’t be used for a call when on data, or vice versa. Of course, if people wanted to do it, it could still be done by using the same techniques as PTT on CDMA. Think about it.

I still haven’t seen any driving or flying games that require the accelerometer for turning that I’ve seen on the iPhone. But based on the sensitivity of Google Sky, I would say that the Droid can totally pick up the same type of gaming.

Battery life seems a bit lacking, but nothing out of the ordinary with a smartphone. Most of your battery goes to the radio and the LCD in a smartphone anyways. Some power-save features might be nice.

If you get down to the Verizon over AT&T for service? I’d agree completely on voice and data. There’s just no question when you compare the two networks. Part of the reason why I haven’t bothered with an iPhone.

With Google’s coffers, I think the Droid and Android phones in general have a really good shot at taking on the number one smartphone maker. There are a few things that I would start pushing and remind Google that when you’re gunning for the number one spot in mobile devices, your product can’t be in beta. Some of the dislikes that I mentioned above are staples of the mobile industry and need to be patched for all current and future phones. If you just let it be, people won’t want to use your product. Just as RF is finicky, domestic mobile users are finicky. And you just can’t rely on that type of situation when so many vendors are looking to your OS to end the slaughtering.

Tags: Apple, Cellular, Google, Linux, Observation, Opinion, Wireless by darkmoon
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I think that having come from the cellular industry, I tend to forget that most people do not realize there’s an inherent difference between domestic carriers based on their technology types. And I was reminded of that when I read Jason Calacanis’ post on his case against Apple.

While I don’t agree with his perspective, I believe that the second point itself is made on incorrect assumptions and trying to give a case based on incorrect facts can lead to disaster. His second point in full is here:

2. Monopolistic practices in telecommunications
——————————————————–
Apple’s iPhone is a revolutionary product that has devolved almost all of the progress made in cracking–wait for it–AT&T’s monoply in the ’70s and ’80s. We broke up the Bell Phone only to have it put back together by the iPhone. Telecommunications choice is gone for Apple users. If you buy an Apple and want to have a seemless experience with your iPhone, you must get in bed with AT&T, and as we like to say in the technology space, “AT&T is the suck.”

Simple solution and opportunity: Not only let the iPhone work on any carrier, but put *two* SIM card slots on the iPhone and let users set which applications use which services. (Your phone could be Verizon and your browser Sprint!) Imagine having two SIM cards with 3G that were able to bond together to perform superfast uploads and downloads to YouTube.

Now here’s the issue with this. CDMA carriers overall do not have sim cards in any way, shape or form. There are some Japanese phones that I have seen that were dual-radio and had modified sim cards for CDMA, but in general it doesn’t happen. The entire number is handled by the ESN which is coded to each phone. That’s the sixteen alphanumeric number that you give to your carrier when you “activate” your phone from behind the battery. The reason for this is that it’s basically two different radio technologies. GSM versus CDMA is much like the VHS versus Beta, or HD-DVD versus Blu-ray except both technologies exist together. But Jason’s want for a dual-radio phone is just not pliable not because it cannot be done, but because from a battery technology standpoint, we still haven’t reached a technological point where battery life is irrelevant.

GSM in itself is actually an older technology. It’s more widespread through Asia and Europe because of it, but the United States is dominated by CDMA (Qualcomm) because of the clearer voice quality and less likelihood of drop scenarios. Don’t let me fool you, CDMA will still drop because RF is a fickle animal, but the two technologies behave differently because of their own intricacies.

Why is this important to know? Well, there’s a difference between data evolutionary paths on both of these cellular technologies. For example, the 3G for CDMA is EVDO while the 3G for GSM is HSDPA. The entire method of choosing the right technology can effect your voice call quality. So for those that actually hate the dropped calls by AT&T because they happen too often? I can probably make the assumption without seeing the traffic patterns that it has a high likelihood of happening due to technology. But Apple’s choice of going with AT&T is very clear since the adoption rate would be towards the majority of market share on a global perspective.

Overall, understanding that there are differences between these two technologies can affect your judgment on which carrier you choose. By choice, I do not believe I would select a GSM carrier if based on voice quality and dropped calls along with the usual echo issues. But to each their own as far as what you’re willing to put up with at the time. Just make sure you understand that you can’t have sim cards with any domestic CDMA carrier.

Tags: Cellular, Wireless by darkmoon
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Verizon seems to have some issues with training their CSRs to respond correctly. Having worked in telecommunications for over a decade, I can say that there are procedures that are enacted in emergency situations that DO NOT require an overdue bill to be paid even though in this situation, unfortunately, it had happened.

In fact, there is specifics to what telecommunications personnel have to abide by when it comes to emergency protocol. Whether or not it’s a CSR training issue or perhaps something that was screwed up in the communications between the emergency personnel and call center, I don’t know. But I found this article to be thrown out there without understanding how the process works.

Unfortunately, my ties with Verizon Wireless from a vendor side has been a long time and they might have changed how it works internally. But it still goes to show that someone out there needs the right training because the procedures are there that overrule any “unpaid bills”.

Tags: Business, Cellular, Customer Service, Observation by darkmoon
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BerryStats began as a project of Brent Grim which has now been updated and made a bit more useful by maximillian from Confessions of a Freeware junkie.
So basically, what the entails is an administrator that is running IIS with ASP support, have relative server paths enabled, and have the BlackBerry server going and on the client side be using Internet Explorer or BlackBerry Browser.
What this does is, it allows an administrator to actually list server statistics, list keys, kill a handheld, list and count keys, and a whole bunch of other things, but the key here? Straight from a Blackberry browser. Which is pretty sweet. It basically gives you a lot more statistics and functionality as a BSE administrator. And anyone that has actually been a BSE admin knows that it’s pretty much a pain in the rear.
In any case, if it looks like a fit with what you do, you might want to take a look at it since it sure looks inviting when it comes to Blackberry services.
You can track the beta here.

Tags: Cellular, Open Source, Tips and Tricks by darkmoon
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GSM.
Yes, you got it. The infrastructure technology keeps me from ever adopting this phone regardless of how absolutely wonderful it is. And there’s a good reason for it.
Having worked in the cellular industry for almost ten years, there is a tendency to understand how each technology is developed and how it performs under all sorts of environments. Alongside this, call quality and drop call rates are among the type of performance statistics that I have to see on a daily basis. And call me crazy when I say that if I buy a phone, call quality seems rather important to me outside of the gadgets arena.
GSM while adopted in more places in the world due to a more mature technology, is also older and has its issues being that it does time division multiplexing. While drop calls are determined by a number of issues, there have been many times that I have called friends with domestic GSM service (only two major carriers in the United States currently). These calls often can fail one way eg. where one person can hear but not speak or will have a lot of interference but no one can actually figure out what’s wrong since the call remains up but it drops to a one-sided conversation.
I really like the iPhone, and would probably get one of the iPhone 3Gs in a heartbeat if they (Apple) ever decide to start selling CDMA versions and look outside of the AT&T exclusive agreement. But with their current selection of a GSM carrier just drives me absolutely batty when it comes to voice calls. And let’s face it. You buy a phone to talk on it, not to surf the web and write emails or update your FriendFeed. Well, maybe you do, but the rest of us don’t.
Photo Credit: (elisfanclub)

Tags: Apple, Cellular, Opinion by darkmoon
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It’s definitely interesting when I see this question come up. “What is 3G?”
Surprisingly, if you read most of the commentary, not only do mainstream media not get what 3G actually stands for, but a lot of the general populace isn’t acquainted with telecom terminology (nor should they be). Strangely enough, this has actually been marketed but hasn’t been conveyed very well.
3G itself is actually third generation, but not with the iPhone, of which many believe. It actually has to do with the network infrastructure. 3G networks are under a certain standard that require high speed internet and the ability to do video telephony. This allows you to do extra services that previously you could not do on a 2G network. Each technology layer is obviously overlayed on top of the older one, so most users don’t realize that the features they want actually drop in under one of these technology realms.
For example? HSDPA is 3G. So is EVDO (rev0. and revA). 2G is mainly any digital standard, from CDMA, to GSM to iDEN. So from a big picture perspective, you can see that there carriers will offer more and more with each new generation of technology. The technologies that just increase speed, but not services do not count as actual generation changes (such as WiMAX which is pre-4G).
Fun stuff eh? Things I get to deal with every day in the telecommunications industry.
Photo Credit: (SANOKAME)

Tags: Cellular, Media by darkmoon
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