The recent furore over the $14K phone bill of a SingTel subscriber shows how much our phone usage patterns have changed in the last decade. Originally used for making voice calls, then moving on to SMS text messages, many of us are nowadays predominantly using our phones for mobile data communications. More specifically, we’re using our phones for mobile access to the Internet. It’s the communication tools and services that’s on the Internet that we care about, not so much the voice or text services from the mobile phone operator.

During my recent holiday trip to Hong Kong, I chose a prepaid roaming card on the basis of its cheap data services. I reckoned that I wouldn’t be making much phone calls or text messaging. It’s data that I’ll be consuming. Voice calls wasn’t important. And text messages, well, I wasn’t expecting to text much either. Furthermore, I wouldn’t even be telling anyone back home about my prepaid telephone number, so actually no one could call me or text me anyway.

This is basically what Google wants. Google’s focus on developing the Android platform will enable it to push its services. In the U.S., there is Google Voice. Although we don’t have Google Voice (yet) in Singapore, there is still Google Talk, and a bunch of other Google services. With Skype, we still get to make free IP-to-IP voice calls. WhatsApp, which is free on Android, lets us send IP-to-IP text messages, bypassing telco-based SMS charges.

Where this is going to is that the traditional mobile network operator is reduced to a basic broadband carrier service. Not very different from the home broadband network that just about anyone subscribes to at home. Pretty much every mobile network operator doesn’t like this, and they don’t want to let this happen, but I think it’s pretty inevitable where we’re all headed towards.

We already have pretty reasonably priced flat-rate unlimited (or as good as unlimited) local mobile data in Singapore. It’s pretty much the case with mobile network operators in many other developed countries. The only trouble is when you roam to a foreign network. It’s still not all that cheap even with various data roaming alliances. For example, with SingTel’s Bridge DataRoam, I would have to pay S$15 a day, or about S$105 for 7 days for the length of my last trip to Hong Kong. Using a prepaid card in Hong Kong, 7 days of unlimited data cost me only S$26.

But having to change SIM cards when you travel is inconvenient. This is particularly when you want to continue to be reachable by voice or text at your original number. Sure, you can forward your voice calls, but you can’t do the same with SMS messages.

Eventually, mobile network operators will have to accept that they have been reduced to basic data carrier service providers, and focus to deliver value in some other ways.

Meanwhile, if you want to continue having data access for your smartphone when you travel, the safest solution is to get a prepaid SIM card. No way you can end up with any accidental or unexpected charges. If you absolutely have to use your local SIM card and want to use a partner roaming data plan with it, make sure your phone is locked to the correct network, and better check regularly that it really works!

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Have you ever wanted to share your 3G data connection with another device? You can easily setup a cabled or bluetooth connection for your notebook or PC. But what you wanted to offer 802.11 wireless connectivity to your friends’ notebooks or mobile phones? Well, there is a free software available that can turn your 3G mobile phone into a 802.11 wireless hotspot. Now you can easily “deploy” wireless internet connectivity wherever you go with just your mobile phone!

It still bills itself as beta, but I chanced upon this software JoikuSpot from Joiku. In its current form, JoikuSpot will provide HTTP and HTTPS access to 802.11 wireless clients by turning supported mobile phones into a 802.11 wireless hotspot. It uses the phone’s data connection for Internet access.

There are clearly a few more “needed” features they’ll have to fix up before this software would be really useful. For example, they will need to implement NAT (network address translation). I believe in its current state, JoikuSpot functions as an application layer proxy. As a result, they currently support only HTTP and HTTPS protocols (the protocols used for web surfing), as it is quite tedious to support every type of application on the Internet.  Also, the wireless link is currently unencrypted, but they are expecting to implement WEP/WPA/WPA2 in the final version.

The software may be a bit limited now, but it looks to be good enough to let you share your 3G connection with others for simple web surfing needs.

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The big question with the iPhone in Singapore is which telco will win exclusive rights to sell the handset here? It has been anyone’s guess since the iPhone was launched in mid-2007, and all three of SingTel, MobileOne and StarHub at some point or other seemed to be the leading favourite.

Well, The Age has reported some interesting developments. Optus has emerged as the winner for exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in Australia. Thailand’s largest mobile operator, Advanced Info Service, is said to be negotiating a deal to bring the iPhone to Asia in collaboration with SingTel and Optus.

Just some background: Optus is a wholly owned subsidiary of SingTel, which also owned 21.4% of Advanced Info Service.

It is still not clear when the 3G model of the iPhone would be available, and whether the iPhone launch in Singapore or this region would be the 3G version or not. Apple’s CEO Steve Job had explained that battery life issues prevented them from releasing a 3G iPhone at the outset.

Both iTWire and IntoMobile reported reported about a 3G iPhone coming to Europe in May 2008. With 3G already quite prevalent in Singapore, a 2.5G iPhone may not go down very well with mobile phone users here.

Here’s a link to all the 3G iPhone rumours.

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One of the stumbling blocks to the use of Wireless@SG has to be the ease of logging in to the network. If you’ve found a Wireless@SG hotspot with working coverage and network access, you’re still faced with the challenge (though just a minor inconvenience) of manual login. Can we have automatic logins?

For phone users, you’d appreciate the difficulty of manual login from your phone’s browser: keyboard entry is difficult, the screen is small, etc. It seems mighty inconvenient if you just needed to quickly check something on a website. (Compare this with 3G, where your phone’s authentication to the network is automatic.)

Well, it seems like Devicescape may have the answer. Download and install their Devicescape client to your Wi-Fi device, select Wi-Fi networks you want to use, and it automatically connects and logins to the hotspot for you. It sounds quite cool, and many devices are support: Windows, Macs, Windows Mobile and a variety of Nokia phones including the N95 8GB.

Devicescape has information on how to login to various hotspot networks. These instructions are sent to your Wi-Fi device to enable it to automatically login to the hotspot. Wireless@SG is listed as one of the networks you can configure (although it is marked as in “validation phase”). What about usernames and passwords? Well, you’d need to configure and store them on the Devicescape server. Yes, I have a big concern over this, but let’s just see how automatic logins to Wireless@SG is possible first.

So after having installed and setup Devicescape client and my account information, I happily headed for a nearby Wireless@SG hotspot. Sadly, login failed.

A quick check on Devicescape’s community forum revealed that they have been trying to get Wireless@SG supported since 17 April 2007. Some posters have been helping with troubleshooting, but it appears this has ultimately not yet been resolved.

Why doesn’t Wireless@SG come up with some automatic logins of their own? Better yet if they can implement secure wireless access using WPA2 or something.

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Take for example, Sony Ericsson’s Z555, W760, and W350. I won’t begin to talk about HSDPA, albm art, 3.2 megapixel cameras, etc… because those are so “yester-year” technology by now. What’s interesting, perhaps, is the W760′s shake control to control music playback. (Probably this can eventually be accomplished through software on the N95 8GB, amongst other Nokia phones, because of the already built-in accelerometer). Cool, like gesture control on the Z555 (already on W380) where you can wave to silence a call or snooze the alarm.

Motorola will roll out the Z10, Rokr E8, W230 and W270. The Z10, which uses UIQ, is being billed the “pocket-sized mobile film studio”. The E8 features “ModeShift” which transforms the phone into a music player (I don’t know why a transformation is needed… what’s wrong with the phone being the music player at the same time?). The E8 boasts automatic volume control in noisy environments, like what some bluetooth headsets already do. It’s keypad is a nice flat slab of glass with raised dots and vibrating feedback to guide your fingers.

Samsung announced their Armani phone, a luxury phone much like LG’s Prada phone and Nokia’s Vertu line. Nothing fascinating in terms of technical specs.

Wistron, a Chinese design house, showed off their GW4 smartphone which they said will be running Google’s Android operating system.

Finally, Nokia announced the North American version of the N95 8GB. Nothing interesting for us, since we already have had the model last year.

I’ve not seen any mention of Apple’s iPhone. They’re probably holding out for Macworld Expo.

I don’t know about you, but it seems there’s really nothing really spectacular happening. Maybe 2008 will the year to focus on aesthetics, usability and other soft factors. Things like hidden OLED screens, hand gesticulation, etc. Or maybe we will see more interesting phones in the upcoming 3GSM and CTIA events.

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Ok, phones without cameras aren’t so rare yet. But let’s move along a bit. 3G is getting more prevalent. People like me want to web surf (with a proper HTML web browser), download emails, etc. No camera is fine, but can we still have all that?

Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed to find a mobile phone with 3G yet without camera. For most phone manufacturers, moving to 3G is almost synonymous with camera function. For my recent ICT, I managed to get my hands on a Sony Ericsson M600i. It had 3G, it had a reasonable web browser (not as good as those Nokia’s though), and it is actually quite sturdy and hardy enough to withstand rough use.

The armed forces should consider to make the M600i a standard issue. Com’on, the army needs mobile phones. I cannot imagine how we could get things moving without mobile phones. For example, just simply trying to get 100+ reservists to fall in would have been a monumental task had there not been mobile phones. I don’t think you want to scream your lungs out shouting, or run around from bunk, to canteen, then to e-mart to search for people?

Out in the field… do you want to setup Tele-J, carry around signal sets, or just use a compact and handy mobile phone? Ya ya, mobile phone signals can be jammed and intercepted. But the same applies with signal sets eh?

The 3G army can perhaps think about how they can capitalize on modern technology that is easily and readily available. The modern mobile phone has high resolution cameras that can be used to send back real-time images and video of the battle ground to HQ for intelligence analysis. GPS can be used to help track troop locations in real-time, and help troops to navigate unfamiliar terrain (yah, no more topo needed). SMS/MMS can be used to broadcast instructions more quickly and efficiently. The 3G can also be used to carry IP data services to connect computers and other data communications equipment.

I think intelligence and communications are of quite strategic value in fighting any battle. Perhaps in addition to SingTel, M1 and StarHub… there could be a MINDEF network to serve the armed forces users. They could operate a combination of fixed base stations as well as mobile roving base stations that can be deployed flexibly wherever needed.

Think about it.

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M1 recently had also sent their subscribers a somewhat similar message. In M1′s case, they were actually increasing the monthly cap of 10GB to 50GB. This means that they can now charge subscribers for up to 50GB of data usage. Their message, however, was easily misinterpreted by some subscribers as saying the bundled data has been increased to 50GB.

However, it seems SingTel is genuinely increasing the bundled data to 50GB without any change in prices. This is what the message from SingTel reads:

“Dear BroadBand on Mobile subscriber, we are pleased to inform you that BroadBand on Mobile 512/1800/3600 plan comes with 50GB bundled local data (upgraded from 10GB) from 1 Dec 07 at no extra cost! Now you can enjoy greater value at the same cost!”

I don’t think there is any catch in there? 50GB is almost about unlimited. Good thing I recently switched to SingTel. Although I prefer the image that M1 projects… I think in the end the $ and ¢ matters a lot too.

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I was originally eyeing the N82. Why? Because I wanted everything in the N95, and the N82 has everything the N95 has, except that it had an N73 form factor. Cool. Everything you’d want in a compact candy bar phone.

You can check out the N82 at www.nseries.com, a review from gsmarena, and some high resolution images from Nokia.

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So now I carry around an 802.11 wireless capable mobile phone with me all the time. Great if there is wireless around me. At home, I have a WPA2 access point where I can authenticate and login automatically, and enjoy secure encrypted wireless access. In NUS (where I work), I have 802.1x PEAP access points, so again it is automatic authentication and login, secure encrypted wireless access.

And what do I get with Wireless@SG? Manually key in username and password. After that, the wireless connection is neither secure nor encrypted. Anyone can trivially sniff my traffic. Okay it is free, don’t ask for too much.

I was tempted to just switch to my 3G data connection, even though there was this rare opportunity that Wireless@SG was there for me to use. I think automatic login is not too much to ask for. I hope IDA or the Wireless@SG providers do something about it.

Added on 11th July 2007: Here I am sitting in SUNTEC trying to get some work done. No WirelessSG. But there is ACCESS-StarHub. Fortunately I have a Hub ID. Otherwise, you guessed it, it will be 3G again.

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The N73 is still a great phone. But the N95 8GB has come out to emerge as the new leader of the pack, after correcting some of the serious issues with the original N95.

Probably the most visual distinction of the new N95 8GB from the original N95 is its new shiny black skin. Black is “in” again. Just like how the all-white Macs have turned black. (No racists innuendos intended, please.) You might also notice that the N95 8GB’s stunning LCD screen is larger. So clearly this is not just a “software change” (like the N73 ME is to the original N73…). Turning to the back, the camera assembly is different too, with the N95 8GB loosing the lens cover and now spotting a flatter back.

The large LCD screen is really cool, it’s almost like watching movies on the big screen instead of on your TV. The bigger screen makes for more comfortable reading of text. Web pages that were just slightly too small for comfortable reading (like it was with the N73 if you had to read through several pages of text) are now perfect.

The N95 8GB’s keyboard is definitely a significant improvement over the N73′s. First of all, the numeric keypad keys are not only larger, but more importantly, they are contoured so you can very easily feel their positions. Also, considering how often the menu button is used nowadays, the bigger and more easily reached key is a welcomed improvement.

Although the N95 8GB overall looks and feels cool, it doesn’t feel as rugged as the N73. Although it has improved over the original N95, the N95 8GB still feels slightly flimsy. Most slider phones seem to suffer from this characteristic.

The N73 (and original N95 too, I believe) contains only 6 application shortcuts in the active standby screen. The N95 8GB has 7. I know, doesn’t sound like a big deal. But hey, sometimes it’s just that one more shortcut that you need!

An obligatory mention of some of the N95 8GB’s key technical specifications: 3.5G HSDPA, 802.11b/g Wireless LAN, UPnP, GPS, and a 5 megapixel camera. There are very few phones out there that combine all these features together (actually, is there any at all?).

There is no more of the proprietary Nokia pop-port. Instead, the N95 8GB has a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack which also doubles as a TV out. For data connections to a PC, there is now a standard mini-USB connector. Definitely much more convenient to have standard connectors.

The N95 8GB has no expandable memory slot. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, really. 8GB of flash on-board is sufficiently generous. On my N73, I bought a 1GB mini-SD card and left it in there forever. It might as well have been part of the phone. Having a standard mini-USB connector makes it easy to copy data in and out of the phone, so the usefulness of a removable mini-USB is not that important.

The battery is the achille’s heel of the original N95. What’s the use of all the wonderful powerful features of the N95 if its battery cannot keep it running? Thankfully the N95 8GB has upgraded the original 950mAh battery to a longer lasting 1200mAh one.

Coming from the N73, the N95 8GB has plenty of much needed improvements in its applications department. For me, one of it has to be the clock application. In the N73, you cannot set automatically recurring alarms, such as to wake you up daily at 6am. The N95 8GB not only allows you to set the days of the week for the alarm to repeat, you can even configure multiple alarms. Now, I can do what I was doing on my iPAQ a long time ago: setting both weekday wakeup alarms and weekend wakeup alarms. Another important thing for me was the keypad auto-lock! This is such a basic thing, and most phones do have this feature. I cannot understand why it was left out in the N73, but fortunately the N95 8GB has it. The GPS is neat. Unfortunately I think the Nokia Maps can be improved in terms of its navigational instructions and more detailed mapping information.

Nokia has been quite productive in writing their own add-on applications which users can download from their website. But on top of that, building on a Symbian OS platform has given the N95 8GB access to a great repertoire of 3rd party applications.

For the N95 8GB, Nokia has backported the demand-paging feature that was intended for later Symbian OS releases. Demand-paging is old-tech in the PC world, but it nevertheless gives the N95 8GB an edge in reduced memory consumption and faster application load times. Ultimately this translates into a better user experience: applications are more responsive, things just happen more quickly than before. (Of course, the N73 probably has an older, slower processor too.)
The phone now comes with a new Nseries PC Suite which matches the phone: a black theme. It actually does look quite nice. Except that Content Copier crashed on my notebook (though it appears to work on my office desktop). Not sure what’s up with that. Someone on the net suggested installing the regular PC Suite (latest version is currenly 6.84), and the Content Copier from there worked on my notebook.

A funny thing though. While checking out the regular PC Suite software, Nokia Singapore website doesn’t list the N95 8GB model. Fortunately, I popped over to check the Nokia Europe website, and they do have the N95 8GB listed.

So, what’s my overall take on the N95 8GB? It’s just about everything you’d want in a phone, and probably it will take others a while to catch up. The N95 8GB’s portfolio of features and cool gadget factor definitely outweighs its few shortcomings. See how the original N95 has been so much ahead of its time. The price is probably steep (even with a mobile contract), but consider the number of individual devices that have been combined into one compact gadget that you can carry around everyday.

If you’re thinking of getting the N95 8GB, do check out other reviews. There is certainly no shortage of reviews on the net, and I’m definitely not covering the topic with sufficient depth. (See how I’ve skipped all the bits about camera, video, music, etc!)

ps: Noted some things I may have said of the N95 8GB could already have been the case for the original N95, or even other N-Series phones. I don’t know; I’m just sharing from an ex-N73 owner’s experience.

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