What do home workers do for internet access when their fixed line broadband connection has been terminated prior or subsequent to a house move? Having been plunged into this situation several times over the past year or so, I decided to find out what the options are.

If a BT line is not already installed in the property, as was the case with me, it could take in excess of a month to get broadband fully up and running, and with many broadband providers - not just BT - requiring the line before they can supply a service, it's a not insignificant problem.

It also emerged recently that Virgin have had their own problems coping with the mountain of requests from disaffected BT users. Late shipment of wireless routers and a general inability to cope with demand on their part mean you could be in for a wait to be connected whatever option you decide to go with.

So, here's the long and short of it: unless you want to risk jumping on an unsecured network nearby you'll need to invest in a 3G dongle. Anecdotally I've heard the quality of these has improved significantly since they first burst onto the market, with all the major mobile network operators selling an extensive array of dongles, depending on how much data you're planning to transfer.

Now this is by no means an exhaustive test, merely my own experience, so yours may be a lot different. I tried one from Vodafone and one from O2. First up was Vodafone.

Extremely simple to set up, the stylish white and red dongle glows when in use, and provides a simple read out to check coverage. It's also got a control panel allowing detailed management of the device. Sadly, this was all a moot point because there was no coverage in my flat in central-ish London. I didn't imagine second floor flat of three in a residential street in SE1 would have coverage problems but there you go.

O2 fared better; easy to set up, manage and get running, with coverage adequate. Trying to remove and uninstall the O2 connection manager client once I'd done this little test, however, was another matter. It took a lot of head scratching and tinkering to achieve, but nice that O2 was so keen to stay on my laptop - marks for enthusiasm. The speed however was inconsistent, ranging from good to not much better than dial-up , and this was just sitting in my flat with 'excellent' or 'very good' signal strength

I'd say that mobile broadband is still something to use in tandem with fixed broadband, not as a replacement. Interestingly, as I was writing this up a new report from Broadband-expert.co.uk revealed download speeds are only 24 per cent of those advertised - 1.1Mbit/s compared with a pledged maximum of 4.5Mbit/s.

It's not great, but I'm sure it will get better. In the meantime, take a deep breath, and prepare to wait.

Posted by Phil Muncaster on October 10, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)

T-Mobile's newly unveiled Pulse handset is the carrier's third Android device, but the first on a pay-as-you-go tariff and designed to appeal to a broader market.

I had a very brief hands-on with the Pulse at T-Mobile's London launch event, and was impressed with the smoothness of the gesture-based user interface.

However, another journalist at the same event criticised the Pulse's resistive touch screen for not being quite as responsive as the capacitive design used on Apple's iPhone.

The 3.5in screen is certainly a decent size, and T-Mobile even suggested that this would allow the Pulse to replace an in-car satellite navigation device when used with the built-in TeleNav software.

T-Mobile's Canvas home screen provides a desktop area larger than can fit onto the physical display, and you can move around with the flick of a finger to pan or scroll the display.

Canvas also lets you customise this home screen by dragging in the icons you most often access from the application menu to create a shortcut, similar to the way you would on a Windows PC.

The handset itself is about the same size and weight as the iPhone, but unlike Apple's device has the standard green and red call / hangup buttons as well as a miniature trackball bracketed by menu / back keys for those who don't like using the touch screen for everything.

An on-screen keyboard pops up whenever you need to key in text, such as when composing an email, and T-Mobile offers a choice of full Qwerty or a layout similar to RIM's SureType. Its predictive text input algorithm also offers a choice of words you can tap to select.

The device we saw was a pre-production unit, and so there were one or two quirks. The screen did not automatically change orientation when we twisted it round as it is supposed to, for example.

However, in the brief time available we found the device seemed to deliver a reasonable experience when accessing the web. We especially liked how easy it was to browse Android Market for available applications, one feature that has driven uptake of Apple's rival iPhone.

The Pulse certainly ticks all the right boxes at first glance; HSPA support, Wi-Fi, GPS (with a trial version of the TeleNav navigation software), touch-screen and a decent-looking user interface.

A full review of the T-Mobile Pulse will appear on V3.co.uk, just as soon as we can get hold of one for long enough.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on September 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)

With almost every gadget under the sun packing a Wi-Fi connection it can sometimes feel like a bit of a waste if there isn't a handy hotspot to connect to while you're out and about.

This problem has been partially solved thanks to the USB dongles and mobile data packages for smartphones, but neither of these is particularly useful if the device in question is not a laptop or a phone. Even when it comes to a laptop, the USB dongles require extra software to be installed to set up the connection, so letting a friend or colleague quickly borrow it becomes a laborious process.

Enter Novatel's MiFi, essentially a very small mobile data router that allows several devices to network over Wi-Fi and share a single mobile data connection.

The MiFi unit is about the same size and weight as a deck of playing cards so carrying it around isn't going to add any serious weight to your bag and even popping it into a handbag or laptop case is not a problem.

The device is very minimal, with a single button with a multicolour LED, microUSB port, microSD card slot and a Wi-Fi status indicator.

The LED lets you see the status of the unit, but with five different colours meaning different things depending on whether it's solid or flashing, this can be a bit confusing at first. Pretty much the only colour of any importance is the red as this indicates a low battery or a device error.

One very minor gripe is that the status LED is embedded within the power button which is fine most of the time, but if you're turning the device on or off your finger completely covers the light so it's difficult to tell what's going on.

If you get a MiFi as part of a mobile data deal it will already be set up and so using it is very simple. When switching it on it automatically initiates a mobile data connection and switches on the Wi-Fi. Up to five devices can be wirelessly connected to the MiFi at any time.

At first the Wi-Fi is completely open so any device can connect without a password. There are several profiles available in the settings to allow you to create an encrypted, password protected connection to help ensure security and prevent anyone nearby from piggybacking on your connection.

If you want to save power you can also connect the MiFi via USB and use it just like a traditional mobile data dongle.

The whole device is controlled through a web interface and provides most of the settings you'd expect from a wireless router such as MAC filtering, port filtering and forwarding, connectivity and power management as well as providing details about the battery and the mobile data signal and connection.

The contents of the microSD card can also be accessed through the web interface or as a removable storage device when the MiFi is tethered to a computer.

It would drain the battery faster but we would love to have seen the MiFi offer some kind of sleep mode whereby it powers up and connects to the internet when it detects a Wi-Fi connection. This would allow users to carry the unit around in a bag and not have to worry about digging it out and switching it on every time they want to use it.

Even if you don't have a 3G data connection, the MiFi can be used as a basic network hub allowing you to connect several devices to share information, and the onboard SD card can also be a great way of sharing content.

As with most wireless devices battery life is going to depend a lot on how much data it's handling, so a lot of downloading or connecting several devices will take its toll pretty quickly. That said we managed to easily get several hours of constant use out of a single charge, and average use saw the device lasting around two days between charges. The added bonus is that if the battery dies you can simply tether it to your laptop and use it that way.

The MiFi is a great piece of kit and if you're in the market for a mobile data package we would definitely recommend that you try and get one of these rather than the standard USB dongles included in most packages.

Posted by Ian Williams on August 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been having a try out with the BlackBerry Storm, Research in Motion's (RIM's) first touch-screen device. My colleague Daniel Robinson has carried out a full review or you can get a look at the Storm in action by watching our video review.

I was keen to get my hands on the device for two reasons. Firstly, I've long coveted an Apple iPhone, mainly for its lovely looks, and screen size and quality and so was interested to have a try out on RIM's touch-screen version; and also because I've just switched over from using my old 8700 BlackBerry and a separate Nokia mobile handset to having just one device, the BlackBerry Bold and so wanted to see how the Storm would compare.

Previously in my old unconverged world of separate mobile/emailer I never used the BlackBerry for anything but checking my email and replying to the odd one here and there; I made the occasional phone call and sent the odd text but much preferred my mobile for those things. So moving to the Bold was quite an experience and I'd advise anyone considering a switch away from two devices to a combined phone/emailer to thoroughly try out the keyboards of any potential handsets before making a purchase.

I found the BlackBerry SMS and phone capabilities difficult to get used to, mainly due to what seem like minor changes from a normal mobile handset but they caused a lot of frustration for me.

For example, the Bold and Storm save all messages in one folder, while I'm used to separate folders for received/sent/draft texts; while trying to change the phone settings, including selecting a ring tone and choosing between the vibrate/ring/vibrate+ring options, proved a real chore, requiring navigating through several different pages and dozens of options before finding the correct Profiles/Advanced/Normal/Phone sequence and arriving at the right place. I also found the requirement of repeating the same choice of Volume/Number of Vibrations and so on for the phone when it is out of holster or in holster an unnecessary duplication of effort; the same process was then required for setting up my preferred SMS profile.

Having said all that, I still rate the BlackBerry as an emailer device, and RIM has made huge improvements since I first began using one a few years ago, especially in terms of the speed of mobile browsing and the ability to view spreadsheets and other business documents.
From my fairly brief look at the Storm, I couldn't spot many different features from the Bold apart from the obvious touch-screen upgrade. Both devices have the same icons, browser, and phone capabilities.

One key upgrade with the Storm was the inclusion of a Chat icon in the menu, offering direct links to download pages for popular instant messaging tools. However, I didn't have much joy with this feature. I managed to download Google Chat, but was unable to log in to my account to try it out.

The music and video players are the same on both devices; the video quality was particularly impressive on both, with high quality picture and sound.

One strange difference was in the charger. I didn't take the charger for the borrowed Storm home with me overnight and when the battery died that evening I automatically went to plug in my Bold charger, only to find they have different connectors. It would be great to see RIM, and in fact all mobile handset makers, standardise on chargers across their different models and it would certainly earn them some green brownie points.

So now onto the Storm's headline-grabber - the touch-screen capability. The general consensus around the vnunet.com office was underwhelming - most people found the virtual keys very difficult to get used to, even with the addition of a "click" when pressing down on the screen - and this was my initial reaction too.

However, having used the Storm as my main emailer/phone for a few days I got used to the way the keyboard worked - I found it helped to aim to put my finger slightly to the left of keys rather than direct centre of them. I also really liked the ability to go back to using a SureType keypad and predictive text, especially for sending SMS messages, something I really miss with the Bold.

A final point: the way the screen switches view to reflect whether you're holding the phone sideways or upright is a neat feature, but it is slow in switching between the views. In the end I found myself favouring a sideways full keyboard view for emailing; and upright SureType for texting.

Overall my first touch-screen BlackBerry experience was good enough to make me consider a full-time move to a similar device in the future - but preferably one with a more satisfying mobile phone experience.

Posted by Madeline Bennett on December 8, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (17)

This photo shows Apple's iPhone 3G alongside two other new devices, the HP iPaq 914 and Nokia's E71. As the picture demonstrates, they are all approximately the same size, although varying in weight and thickness.

All three devices represent the latest technology, supporting 3G wireless broadband, Wi-Fi, and GPS capability for navigation and other location-based services. As such, these are all high-end devices and potential rivals for RIM's BlackBerry models in the enterprise.

Of the three, the Nokia E71 is the slimmest and the lightest, while the iPaq 914 is the heaviest and thickest at 154g and 16mm. However, it also appears to have the largest battery capacity, at 1940mAh.

The Nokia E71 has already been reviewed in depth by IT Week here. To sum up: it is a very capable business messaging handset, but its keyboard is somewhat cramped compared to a BlackBerry.

The same criticism can be levelled at the iPaq 914, but I found I could enter text fairly easily. The HP device also has one feature that might please BlackBerry users; a jog dial thumbwheel on the right side of the case, similar to that seen on older BlackBerry models before RIM introduced its 'Pearl' mini trackball. It also supports touch-screen input via a stylus as well as a standard five-way navigation control, giving users more input choice than most devices.

Apple's iPhone 3G has the best display and offers the best web experience through its Safari browser, but has two drawbacks as far as I'm concerned; no keyboard and a battery that cannot be removed by the user.

As with the first iPhone, the device is very simple to use, but I found Apple's on-screen 'soft' keyboard a pain - even compared with the tiny keys on the E71 and iPaq 914 - and kept finding myself hitting the wrong letter. The iPhone could prove a hit with business users that need a decent browser - such as for web-based applications - but I can't see heavy email users or anyone whose job entails entering a lot of data being happy with it.

All three models feature some form of assisted GPS (A-GPS) to speed up the time it takes to get a fix on the user's location. While the E71 has Nokia Maps, both the iPaq 914 and the iPhone use Google Maps. The iPhone version of this application is slicker, but both have pretty much the same functionality, including the option to fix your location GPS and get directions to a specified destination. However, Nokia Maps supports turn-by-turn directions for drivers, although it costs extra to have the directions spoken aloud.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)

This photo shows how small and neat RIM's latest BlackBerry device is. The Pearl 8120 adds 802.11b/g Wi-Fi capability to the basic Pearl handset design that was introduced last year, without increasing the size at all and adding just a couple of grams to the weight.

For workers that already use a BlackBerry, the SureType keyboard will probably count against switching. This puts two letters on each key and uses predictive algorithms to work out what you are trying to type. It works quite well, but slows you down sometimes and is probably not the best solution for those who need to send lots of emails.

However, if your company has a BlackBerry server and you don't necessarily need to respond instantly to every email sent to you, then the Pearl is definitely worth a look. Its size and weight are in line with many basic Nokia handsets, making it easier to carry than some earlier BlackBerry models.

The addition of Wi-Fi means that the Pearl can browse web sites much faster when in range of an access point, but has little real impact on the email service.

A full review of the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 will appear in a future issue of IT Week, and the device is available now in the UK from O2.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on November 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Martin Veitch revises his early dislike of the Sierra Wireless 3G modem for laptops.

Frustrated at a duff installation experience, I wrote some disparaging notes a few weeks ago about my unhappy start to life with Sierra Wireless’s AirCard 875U Broadband USB Modem, the device that you’ll get if you buy 3G mobile access from O2.

The user guide’s installation information was below par and the product was only got up and running after a fresh set of drivers were located on the Sierra web site. Since then, however, the AirCard has proven a better partner than those early indications might have suggested.

On the plus side, the AirCard has worked pretty well faultlessly: in three weeks of use, I have been disconnected just once. Plug the device into a free USB slot and the software is quickly invoked with connection status displayed. In London, the link was usually a 3G connection with some dropping back to GPRS. However, despite promises of "speeds up to 3.6 Mbit/s", my experience was of speeds somewhat faster than a dial-up connection but slower than a basic broadband service.

The AirCard has a nice format. It is the size of a small mobile phone but its hinged design means it can be positioned erect, horizontal or pointing straight down from the USB slot. It feels a bit more solid than cord-tethered modems such as the Huawei 3G device that is offered by Orange. Another nice feature is that the high-speed HSDPA standard is supported.

On the negative side, I could only really complain about that installation experience and the fact that 3G connectivity is now starting to be built into laptops, so plug-in devices will soon become only relevant for legacy machines. If you can stomach the tariffs, then these are very handy products for getting online when other options are limited, such as when there are no nearby Wi-Fi hotspots in range.

Posted by Editor on August 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT Week Executive Editor Martin Veitch tries out a USB 3G modem for laptops

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 3G modems are a very handy addition to the traveller’s collection of devices for getting online. While fixed broadband and Wi-Fi are great when you can access them, a cellular connection is very useful for those moments when you can’t - even if you find do yourself reduced using slower-than-3G links more often than is preferable.

Short of other options, 3G modems can offer a hassle-free experience. The Vodafone USB modem I tested in an earlier post even runs its monitoring software from the device itself and has on-board LEDs that denote GSM, GPRS and 3G status links. However, the Sierra Wireless AirCard 875U that is being offered by O2 posed a significant setup test in my experience.

In tests, I found the ugly install program seemed to have been hastily assembled. It recognised the USB device as a PC Card modem, took an age to display installation notes, but still would not load up and connect after several attempts.

Downloading a new setup program from the Sierra website finally fixed the problem. Let’s hope that the device works better than its installation routine. I’ll be reporting back on my progress soon, but in the meantime I'm feeling prejudiced in favour of modems that don’t need a separate install disk in order to work with a laptop.

Posted by Editor on August 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been trying out HP's iPaq 514 Voice Messenger phone, which turns out to be a very nice lightweight handset despite having built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless interfaces.

This Windows Mobile 6 device also comes with a built-in SIP client for IP telephony, which is designed to pair up with a SIP server or IP PBX when a worker is in their office and in range of the corporate Wi-Fi network. The problem is, how to go about testing this without access to such infrastructure?

Fortunately, it turns out that there are online SIP service providers that allow you to access IP telephony over a broadband internet connection. Many of these, such as the one I chose to try out – Freespeech.co.uk – are free to sign up for, and offer free calls to other VoIP numbers.

Armed with an 0844 number and my registration details from Freespeech, I set about configuring the iPaq 514 to connect. However, it turns out that the SIP client cannot be configured from the handset itself. Users instead have to link the phone to a Windows PC and use the HP iPaq Setup Assistant that comes on a CD-ROM with the phone.

This tool turns out to be very handy and lets you configure almost all aspects of the handset, including Wi-Fi access point settings, email accounts, speed dial numbers, and even populate the browser Favourites list.

With all necessary configuration information entered, I turned on Wi-Fi and connected the phone to my wireless router at home. The VoIP client then looked for the SIP server and connected, showing the status message "freespeech.co.uk selected". The "selected" part means that any calls made will now go via the internet instead of the cellular network.

I made a quick call using the phone to a colleague that had also signed up on the same service, and found the call quality excellent, if a little on the quiet side.

Overall, I was surprised at how easy it was to get voice-over-Wi-Fi working on this handset. That said, the settings Freepeech emailed to me did not exactly match those in the iPaq 514 configuration screen, and I had to make an educated guess to bridge the gap between the two.

The only drawback to this setup is that I now have a separate phone number for calls made over VoIP that differs from my landline and the mobile number of the iPaq.

This will probably not be a problem in a business environment, as the SIP service will link to the corporate infrastructure and probably tie in with the user's desk phone. For home users, the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) VoIP protocol, which features in RIM's new BlackBerry 8820, instead links the handset with the mobile carrier's infrastructure.

A full review of HP's iPaq 514 Voice Messenger will appear in a future issue of IT Week.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently, my colleague Martin Veitch wrote in this blog about his favourable impressions of using Thus’s Mobile 3G Broadband modem with a laptop while away on a press trip.

Martin was enthusiastic about the technology, but found 3G coverage to be patchy. I have come to the same conclusion while testing out a couple of laptops for a future edition of IT Week.

The Dell Latitude D630 and Fujitsu-Siemens P 7230 are both equipped with built-in wide-area network capability, rather than relying on an external USB modem as Martin did. All that is required is to insert a SIM for a valid network subscription, and both laptops enable you to be connected to the internet from pretty much anywhere.

For my tests, I used a SIM kindly loaned to me by Vodafone, which fitted into the battery compartment in both of the laptops. In our central London offices, I was able to get a strong 3G signal and browse the web without being kept waiting.

However, outside London, it is a different story. I tried out both laptops at home in St Albans, just outside the M25 and about 25 miles from the centre of London. Here, it proved impossible to get a 3G connection, despite the fact that, according to Vodafone's coverage map, I should have been able to access the high speed (up to 1.4Mbit/s) HSDPA version of 3G as well.

This seems a shame, since it is users that live or work away from the metropolitan areas that might benefit most from a 3G subscription. In London, you never seem to be far away from high-speed access via a Wi-Fi hotspot these days, but that is not the case in many other places.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)