Category: Mobile

Get Live GPS Tracking with Instamapper

Instamapper - Device Page

A little while back I wrote about a service called Foursquare that would help you keep track of where you friends are or have been when they check in to various locations. What this service does rely upon is your friends checking in regularly and also sharing that information with you. It is very much …

Continue reading

Net Filtering vs NBN – What’s it Gonna Be?

As the last few years (and particularly the last few months) have unfolded, we have seen the mandatory web filtering debate get knocked around the press whilst the NBN (only now coming online in a few towns conveniently before an election) got its fair share of airtime. Apart from the issue of credibility and electability …

Continue reading

Converged vs Standalone Devices – Which is Best?

Particularly over the last decade, we have witnessed convergence of technology at any increasing rate. Ten years ago, mobile phones did little more than make and receive calls and SMS. MMS was later introduced while camera and video functionality started to appear as entry level features. Mobile phones have also turned into mobile broadband modems …

Continue reading

No Inflight Calls For You!

Shortly after ACMA had given the green light for cellular communication technology to deployed in aircrafts, QANTAS and Jetstar have quickly put the brakes on any such deployment in their fleet. In a blog entry earlier this week I touched on how this technology could become a nuisance particular on longer international flights. At the …

Continue reading

Use Your Mobile as a Modem and Save Money

Some of us are regular users of mobile broadband services and normally rely on a mobile broadband modem of some description to get an internet connection whilst we are on the move or away from home. Dialup access once reigned supreme for mobility and availability but mobile broadband has pretty much put it to rest. …

Continue reading

Check Naming Conventions for Consistency

Just a quick blog before I hop on a flight back to Helsinki. One thing I noticed in Denmark was how they labelled floors in buildings, particularly when it came to labels in elevators and around escalators. Unlike what www expect in Australia, the ground floor is marked as “zero” with floor above it incrementing …

Continue reading

Australian Airlines to Offer Inflight Cellular Services

In a previous post I wrote about how about how our friends across the ditch were getting access to inflight SMS as well as data for smartphones. That was a couple of months ago and it seems like us Australians weren’t about to be outdone by the Kiwis according to this SMH article. As expected …

Continue reading

Australia Needs More Free Wi-Fi

Throughout our travels during our holiday I have noticed that other countries tend to have far more generous coverage when it comes to Wi-Fi access. Many hotel lobbies and rooms will include some form of access (be it paid or free) and even trains and buses here in Europe have complimentary Wi-Fi. Airports are also …

Continue reading

In-Flight Power Makes a World of Difference

At the time of writing this article, I am somewhere over the Northern Territory near Darwin at 38000 feet with another 4620km to go before reaching Hong Kong. Since there is no in-flight access to the Internet this article would have been published some time after I landed. That’s not such a big deal for …

Continue reading

Should Broadband Become a Utility Service?

These days, everyone should have access to electricity, water and a telephone line (although I have a brother-in-law of mine that doesn’t have drinkable tap water). Back in the days of analogue and digital dialup modem technology, the telephone line was not only there for emergencies and keeping in touch with people but also opened …

Continue reading