The Mobile - Voicing Your World

From Vinod Knosla: The mobile phone will be a mainstream personal computer. With built in projector. Authentication. Credit cards on SIM cards. ID cards, passports, drivers licenses. Any information you need. Khosla says he keeps pictures of his passport electronically on his phone. He says people will be less likely to carry their laptops. Come near a computer, and physical hard drive will be yours, including half-sent email message you left at home. Lose the phone, and all the information is on the network. Imagine what you want to do, and it should be available anytime. Projectors in cell phones in next two years. More than one camera per cell phone; high priority for Texas Instruments. Critical ingredient is high speed networks, which we will have in next 2-3 years. Jurvetson says the trends are already playing out, other than the projector piece, particularly in Europe, where cell phones are 8% of credit card payments. McNamee says Asia is where most of that functionality is already embedded; he says the carriers and the government puts this projection further out in North America. Schoendorf says he believes the trend; he says a good way to lose money is to bet against Vinod. “I’ve learned to listen when Vinod says something might change,” Schoendorf says.

Cell phones have changed the way we communicate, blurring the lines separating work, play, and the commute between the two. Wireless e-mail, messaging, and Web access will change communications even more.

Data, not voice, is driving this disruption. The biggest news from Apple's recent announcement of its iPhone software development kit was the addition of an Exchange mail applet that lets business users access their work e-mail from their Apple handsets.

"New Internet-friendly cell phones such as the iPhone and G-Phone [phones built on Google's upcoming Android operating system] will lower the entry barrier for mobile Internet services, improve mobile Internet experiences, and introduce new business models," says Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst for Parks Associates. "We'll begin to see mass-market adoption and form factors diversify to include embedded portable devices such as portable media players and game consoles."

Mobile Internet-capable phones are poised to become a major advertising platform, as well. "The mobile phone is likely to trump the Internet as the most versatile media platform," Scherf adds. "The potential of mobile advertising to become an explosively new ad platform is real and colossal."

Disruption: The ability to be reachable 24/7 is morphing into the ability to surf the Net from any location. And it's forcing monopolistic wireless companies to open up their networks to new devices and services.

Selecting a mobile phone is probably one of the most important things to do for a nomadic worker. I've spent quite a few hundred dollars on phones - to my wife's regret! I've used Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericcsson, Imate (HTC). The only two I haven't tried right now are IPhone and Blackberry.

Conclusion: My best bet Blackberry (Curve) or Nokia E90 or E61i.

Rather than explain the pros and cons of each - we'll use the Blackberry as our option. All examples, settings etc for mobile working will be set up based on this model.

Blackberry Curve 8320:

• Getting familiar with the phone
• Setting up WAP, Internet, MMS, Blackberry
• Install Necesary applications
• Shortcut Keys for faster usage
• Other tips on using the Blackberry Curve

Check out the downloads folder to for any additional information, drivers, manuals etc.

Also, read this on many uses of a mobile phone.