Headworx

People have been saying Apple is the only company capable of forcing wireless carriers (MNOs) to decouple phones (terminals) and phone numbers from network access contracts. The truth is now Google is the other one. Commanding a huge user base, owning the Android OS, the Google Voice service, and now owning a mobile hardware division, Google definitely is in a position to release a decoupled device, with multiple physical, or even a virtualized SIM card slots. It would have a phone number associated with the Google account (not with a SIM card). And would use any network to complete calls. I have a feeling the GSMA is today, where the record labels were, when the first iPod was released and MP3 took the world by storm. SIM cards in 2011 are, where CDs were in 2001. Obsolete products of the old era.

I had a wonderful sabbatical last July. Packed my backpack as light as possible (managed to squeeze everything below 20 lbs) and took off to Peru. So how it looked like from the perspective of electronic devices and what worked and what did not? First of all - the 6" 3G/WiFi Kindle. It was great to have many books (including the Lonely Planet guide) in such a small and lightweight device. Perfect for long flights (Krakow - Frankfurt - Santo Domingo - Panama - Lima) and for long haul bus services in Peru. Kindle was also giving me a backup Internet access. All worked beautifully. Until I broke it. I must have squeezed it too hard in the backpack or something... Anyway at that point I realized how important it was to have paper backup copies of some important documents (like my flight tickets). Electronic platforms are great. But they are so easy to break. The second access device was my faithful Blackberry Torch. Just after I landed in Lima, I realized my mobile carrier (Or...

Despite having wireless connectivity, the Cloud, Facebook, Google+, Dropbox and the entire galaxy of services that enable electronic sharing among people and devices, the user experience (believe it, or not) is still in its infancy. Just recall how "easy" it is to send a photo to a group of friends: take a snapshot with your camera, remove the memory card (or connect the camera to a computer using an USB cable), download it to a local hard drive, learn how to use a cloud service to upload the photo, get the url link to the uploaded copy and paste it to your email application, praying it will become "hot" when you click "send". Then on the other device click "check for new messages", and open the link (if it is not hot, select it - not an easy task on a mouseless device - and paste into the address field of the web browser. Now imagine the possible alternative: you hold your camera, it is aware of the other displays in the neighborhood, you t...

As I wrote before , I took my 3G Kindle to my vacation trip to Peru. After my mobile data had been being cut off by Orange (no data roaming to Peru), the Kindle proved to be the great backup window to the world. It worked as expected, I was able to connect whenever I wanted over any 3G or EDGE network there (for free!) and also read the books I took with me, including the Lonely Planet guide. Until I broke it. I had it in my backpack and have no idea what happened. I must have sit on it or whatever... The display crashed and that was it. Quick realization of the importance of backups (like a paper copy of my flight tickets). After returning home, I contacted Amazon, explaining what I did. They said they were very sorry, but not to worry, as they were shipping me a new one. For free, no questions asked. I talked to them last Tuesday, and the new Kindle arrived on Friday morning. Not a bad timing, considering I was sent from the USA and had to cross the Atlantic and clear the EU customs ...