Computing Unplugged - Customer disservice, more mobile networks, and news

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June 21, 2004 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Customer disservice Mobile ad-hoc network technology This week's news

STYLUSCENTRAL: WE'RE MORE THAN STYLI! Whether you're looking for soft cases or hard, auto holders, keyboards, memory cards, readers, software, cables, tethers, and, of course, the largest collection of styli, StylusCentral.com is the place to be. Home of the "What Fits My PDA?" perfect-fit database, if you need it for your PDA, we've got it. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed and free shipping on U.S. orders over $30. For the best selection of PDA Styli on the Web (and lots more), click here.

WIFILE GIVES YOU WIRELESS ACCESS TO YOUR FILES! Amazing new software lets your wireless Palm OS device access files on corporate networks, school servers and home computers. Edit documents and spreadsheets, listen to music, view or upload photos, and more. Works with smartphones, WiFi and Bluetooth devices. Download a FREE Trial at Hands High Software.

MOBILE NOTE TAKING: NOTE STUDIO FOR PALM & PC Note-taking software that works the way you think. Manage a collection of notebooks on your Palm & PC. "Now, this is great!" Download the free demo today.

TRANSFORM OUTLOOK INTO A POWERFUL SALES SOLUTION Tired of using Outlook and ACT? Goldmine too complicated? Be more organized and close more sales; Satisfaction Guaranteed; Do everything inside of Outlook! Click here to learn more about Prophet

MASTER YOUR GOLF: FREE 3 ROUND TRIAL Award "Best Product of the Year" IntelliGolf just got better! Now IntelliGolf includes all 7 S's of Golf: Scoring, Shot tracking, Sharing, 30+ Sidegames, 250+ Statistics, 18,500+ Signature courses, plus "Satellite GPS". Track your handicap. Evaluate statistics and graphs. View distances with GPS accuracy on your Palm or Pocket PC! Free trial at www.intelligolf.com/cu.asp

BUYER BEWARE
Customer disservice
By James Booth

What has become of customer service? I remember a time when "the customer was always right." Has consumerism in this country gotten to the point that retailers have so many customers lined up waiting for us to throw our money at them that they can be downright abusive? I don't think so. The bankruptcy of the Kmart chain is but one example that the consumer's dollar is at a premium. American society is no longer driven by products like it once was, but by service. What kind of service? Customer service.

"This is ludicrous. It's like pulling teeth."

Let's face it; just about everyone is filled with an over-inflated sense of his or her own importance. Not only do we enjoy being catered to, we demand it. Given this, how is it that companies, whether at a physical retail location, or an online retailer, think they can treat their customers like so much fodder for the corporate shredder?

A prime example is the patronization that Denise Watkins received at a retail electronics location. You can read more about her experience in the article "Are you being technopatronized?" (see http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200401/00001211001.html) in the January issue of Computing Unplugged.

It seems to me that what some businesses don't realize is that without their customers, there would be no business. I cannot believe how some companies' customer service or tech support divisions can be so deliberately obtuse and circuitous.

One well-known company (who shall remain unnamed) I called recently told me, by a recording, mind you, that their tech support staff was too busy to talk to me, that I should call back later, and that I was invited to use their email support option. I suppose that's better than letting me sit on hold for hours on end, but neither situation should ever present itself. I believe this company needs to hire more support staff if this circumstance arises often enough to have a recorded message.

Share the pain. Tap here to keep reading about crappy customer service.

WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE
Technical aspects of mobile ad-hoc networks
Although there are numerous benefits to the mobile ad-hoc network, due to their nature, they're vulnerable and not deployable on a large scale because of the limits of technology. This article highlights some of the technical aspects of mobile ad-hoc networks with a brief discussion of the mechanisms currently in use, and how they overcome the challenges posed by this technology.

To read the full article, click here.

TRAVEL IN STYLE -- WITH NOTES AND DOMINO! Even in the best of circumstances, traveling can be a challenge. And, when you're taking a laptop or a handheld on the road with you, and you have to connect with your office, your email, and your life, it can be even more of a challenge. But now, it just got a lot easier. DominoPower Senior Technical Editor Mick Moignard has written a series of great articles called Mick's Travel Tricks that can make traveling a pleasure again -- whether you're in the U.S. or anywhere worldwide. Your best way to learn the secret tricks of a veteran tech traveler.

COMPUTING UNPLUGGED NEWS CENTER
This week's news
Want to get the very latest mobile and wireless news? The Computing Unplugged News Center is updated every day with news of product releases, industry info, tips, techniques, and pointers to great mobile and wireless resources on the Web. Here's this week's news:

SanDisk Wi-Fi SD card
SanDisk has revealed to Brighthand its plans to release a Wi-Fi SD card for the Zire 71. The Zire 71 doesn't supply enough power to the SD slot to let it use the original version, so a new model was necessary that requires even less power.

Audiovox giving up wireless
Audiovox, which had created a number of handhelds running the Pocket PC Phone Edition, is selling the wireless portion of its business to UTStarcom.

70 megapixel livecam
The Swiss company Roundshot has released the 360° Internet Livecam. The Livecam is a digital 360° camera, capable of 70 megapixels. Livecam uses a high-resolution digicam designed for pro photography, as well as slit-scan technology, which apparently allows for "seamless panoramas" of up to 360°.

Key figure in BlackBerry case dies
Tech history may remember Thomas Campana as the man who took on Research In Motion and its popular BlackBerry device, but to friends and co-workers he was a tireless and inventive engineer committed to perfecting the best that wireless technology has to offer. Campana died June 8 at the age of 57, a day after an appeal got under way in a high-profile patent infringement case launched by Campana's company, NTP, against RIM and its renowned BlackBerry device for sending and retrieving e-mail wirelessly.

Verizon 911 glitch fix
Verizon Wireless is very close to fixing a problem that has garbled some cellular calls made to 911. The bug, which affects Verizon phones with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology from Qualcomm, fills some 911 calls with static or causes every other word to be dropped.

Sasser informant under investigation
The person responsible for turning in the accused creator of the Sasser worm is now under investigation for being a party to the crime. A magazine reported that the informant who provided the tip to Microsoft that led to the arrest of Sven Jaschan is a classmate of the German teen.

SAP AID-RH certification
Psion Teklogix announced it is the first SAP Software Partner to complete the SAP Auto-ID Reader Hardware (AID-RH) certification for SAPR solutions for mobile business. Psion Teklogix can now work with SAP customers to deploy RFID-enabled mobile computing solutions that seamlessly integrate with SAP Mobile Infrastructure.

Network Associates ex-CFO indicted
A federal grand jury has indicted Network Associates' former chief financial officer on charges he helped inflate the company's financial outlook by hundreds of millions of dollars.

New OTA Flash Forum members
The OTA Flash Forum, a special interest group addressing the technical and operational issues facing over-the-air (OTA) management of mobile devices, announced several new members including: ALLTEL, mFormation, Mobile Diagnostix, Sprint, US Cellular and WDSGlobal.

Best SMB Security Solution
Interlink Networks announced that its new LucidLink Wireless Security solution was named the best "SMB (Small and Medium-Size Business) Authentication/Security" product at the Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo last week. LucidLink is an affordable solution that provides ironclad security heretofore only available for large enterprises with on-staff IS security professionals.

activAeon XA
activAeon XA is an analytical tool that automates data collection and provides vital information on actual license usage. A suite of intuitive real-time reports including MOET, Session Activity Report, SQL Server Report and more can be generated in three simple steps to give accurate license usage figures that help application providers, ISVs and enterprises to streamline operations as well as optimize resources.

ThunderHawk 2.0
Bitstream announced the release of ThunderHawk 2.0, the company's mobile browsing technology. ThunderHawk 2.0 narrows the gap between mobile and desktop environments by including functionality that enhances the browsing experience on small screen devices.

80GB pocket-size hard drive
Kano Technologies has introduced its SureFIRE800, an ultra-small, super-fast external hard drive that fits in your pocket and can store up to 80GB of data. Its high-performance, 5400 RPM 8MB cache hard drives and FireWire 800 data connection, give the SureFIRE800 speeds matching those of drives three times its size.

Ed Colligan Palm president
palmOne announced it has promoted Ed Colligan, former palmOne senior vice president and general manager of the Wireless Business Unit, to the position of president, reporting to Todd Bradley, chief executive officer.

powerOne Finance version 5
Infinity Softworks released version 5 of its powerOne Finance financial calculator software and its Finance Pack add-on for powerOne Graph graphing-scientific calculator software. Templates are included for calculating loans, leases, amortizations, net present value, and internal rate of return in TVM and Cash Flows.

Long-Reach Total-VDSL
Metalink announced the North American demonstration of it's Long Reach Total-VDSL at the upcoming SUPERCOMM 2004 in Chicago. Total-VDSL delivers up to 18 kft of xDSL service capability, and automatically scales performance from 18 kft to an ultra-fast 50Mbps at short distances.

Quantum computers
In a step toward making ultra-powerful computers, scientists have transferred physical characteristics between atoms by using a phenomenon so bizarre that even Albert Einstein called it spooky. Quantum teleportation of characteristics has been demonstrated before between beams of light.

First mobile phone virus
The first ever computer virus that can infect mobile phones has been discovered, anti-virus software developers said, adding that up until now it has had no harmful effect. The French unit of the Russian security software developer Kaspersky Labs said the virus, called Cabir, appears to have been developed by an international group specializing in creating viruses, showing no technology is reliable and safe from attacks.

Feds say no Do-Not-Spam list
The Bush administration will not immediately create a national do-not-spam registry to discourage unwanted emails, saying using current technology to do so might generate even more unsolicited sales pitches across the Internet.

Upstart looking for defectors
Software start-up Stata Labs released the first major revision of its Bloomba email software, adding calendar features and the ability to swap data with Palm devices. Stata unveiled the initial version of Bloomba about a year ago, positioning the software as an alternative to Microsoft's widespread Outlook for people who need to manage huge libraries of saved messages.

Absolutist Mahjong
Absolutist has released their Mahjong on four different platforms: Windows, Mac, Pocket PC, and Palm. With Absolutist Mahjong, you can play a Classic or Shuffle game, Word Mahjongg or Math Mahjongg.

Pocket Tunes Version 3.0
NormSoft announced that version 3.0 of their Pocket Tunes audio player for the Palm OS, is now available. Included in this latest version are support for WMA files, Windows Media Player Integration, tag-based song selection and enhanced support for new audio formats using plugins.

EZ-Stream and Rhapsody
SMC Networks announced that its EZ-Stream Wireless Audio Adapter is now compatible with Rhapsody, the Internet jukebox service from RealNetworks.

Attack blocks Web sites
A widespread electronic attack on a company that handles traffic for some of the world's most-visited Web sites knocked several high-profile sites offline for at least 45 minutes early Tuesday. The attack targeted Internet servers run by Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai Technologies, which distributes and manages Web data for companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Federal Express and Xerox.

Nokia Bluetooth keyboard
Nokia has announced plans to introduce a Bluetooth keyboard for Series 60 smartphones. The Nokia Wireless Keyboard is expected to be available in the European, Asia-Pacific, and Americas markets during the fourth quarter of this year at approximately 135 Euros ($165).

BackUp Buddy 2.0
BackupBuddy 2.0. from Blue Nomad, is the first product available that uses a unique process for backing up devices and storing all changes made to the device since the last backup in a database enabling users to restore a device to any point in time.

visKeeper data safe
visKeeper is a data safe for storage of confidential data such as passwords, addresses, credit card and bank account information. All data are encrypted. Access to the safe is protected by the well-proven and patented visual Key technology. The software is available for Pocket PCs, Palm Handhelds, and Windows PCs, and the files created by visKeeper may be transmitted between the different platforms without conversion.

SAIS on the go
Astraware announced the release of their first conversion of a Digit Eel title, the highly anticipated Strange Adventures in Infinite Space for Palm OS and Pocket PC. Strange Adventures in Infinite Space (or SAIS to its friends) puts the player at the helm of a deep space exploration vessel at the edge of the infamous Purple Void.

Solid Innovation third-party billing
Solid Innovation, provider of integrated route distribution, sales force automation, and integrated back-office accounting solutions to the Direct Store Delivery (DSD) and wholesale distribution industry, announced that it has incorporated third-party billing features into its mobile route accounting solutions. This new functionality will enable distributors that are part of a larger buying group or distribution network of companies that move products on behalf of another vendor to automate all third-party billing processes.

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