Friday, August 15, 2008
Ubuntu, OS X, Etc....
I recently moved so I've been setting up my office space, network, and re-evaluating my operating system and computer use. Here is what I'm using these days.
Ubuntu:
As I was packing up my things I decided to hit the upgrade button on my Ubuntu box. It was an effortless move to 8.04 Hardy Heron. Once complete I packed my desktop computer away and loaded it into the truck. It's unpacked now and I'm typing this post on it. My only complaint continues to be lack of peripheral support, but that will come with time.
Frequently Used Software:
･Word Processing / Work Productivity: OpenOffice One of my favorite features is the ability to quickly open PDF's as text. I know there are lots of other ways to do this, but this way works for me.
･Browser: Flock The media bar is what keeps me coming back to Flock!
･Music: I still don't have a single application I like. I'm always trying new things.
OS X:
Most of my time is spent on my MacBook. It's the right size to carry and the keyboard is comfortable for long typing sessions. Nice hardware and software, worth the price.
Frequently Used Software:
･Word Processing / Work Productivity: NeoOffice Continues to serve me well. No complaints.
･Browser: Flock. Same thoughts as Flock for Ubuntu, media bar is great.
･Music: Spotify. Still using Spotify and I like it. I'm curious to see what happens when it comes out of beta.
･Photos: Flickrbooth. Very cool. Lets me get a stream of my kids playing with the built in camera anywhere.
･Security: Trucrypt. Easy to use encryption program.
･WiFi: iStumbler Easy to use, no frills.
I still have a PC based laptop and desktop. I'm not going to detail those here as they're the most common in the marketplace and I use them the least. I haven't bothered to upgrade to Vista as the PC has become less relevant in my life.
Posted by Steve Ross on Technology | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Joikusoft and FON unveil Wi-Fi HotSpot software for Mobile Phones
Joikusoft and FON unveil Wi-Fi HotSpot software for Mobile Phones
Joikusoft, the mobile software development house, maker of the mobile Wi-Fi HotSpot software JoikuSpot, announces a collaboration with FON, the world's largest WiFi community. FON and Joikusoft are releasing an exclusive version of Joikusoft's mobile hotspot solution, named FonSpot. FonSpot turns a mobile phone into a Wi-Fi HotSpot, enabling any laptop, iPod Touch, internet tablet or other Wi-Fi device to connect to the Internet using any compatible mobile phone as a secure high speed Internet gateway. FonSpot with Wi-Fi will effectively replace Bluetooth, cable and USB dongles to access the Internet using mobile phones and 3G connectivity. The FonSpot is a fully secure mobile internet HotSpot solution, and makes use of the maximum security offered by the underlying Symbian OS platform. The users have full control over who will be able to access their FonSpot's wireless internet connection.
FonSpot is an exclusive offering for members of the FON community. Foneros will be able to share their mobile Internet connection with up to 5 friends, who can connect to their FonSpot. It will be made commercially available for Foneros during 3Q 2008. According to the Joikusoft Chairman and Founder Mr. Tom Ojala "FON is a perfect companion to roll out wireless Wi-Fi access in mobile phones as FON already has an established user base of hundreds of thousands of physical FON Wi-Fi base-stations. FON users will now enjoy even broader access to internet wherever they are, literally carrying internet in their pocket."
Alexander Puregger, FON's Director of Business Development, states, "FON is very glad to work with Joikusoft as the company is proving to be an innovative contributor to the proliferation of Wi-Fi. And FON is all about WiFi everywhere!”
About Joikusoft
Joikusoft is a software development house focusing on mobile innovation. The Joiku mission is to liberate mobile internet with mobile Wi-Fi HotSpots. Joikusoft has developed a mobile Wi-Fi HotSpot software client called JoikuSpot for S60 Smartphones. User base of JoikuSpot exceeded 300.000 in June 2008 and grows exponentially. Joikusoft was the first in the world to roll out a mobile Wi-Fi HotSpot solution in February 2008 at 3GSM Barcelona. Joikusoft is a privately held company, founded in 2007 in Finland and has headquarters in Garden City, Espoo, Finland.
Visit www.joikusoft.com for more information.
About FON
FON is the world's largest WiFi community. FON's mission is to stimulate the growth of WiFi around the world by creating a global community of "Foneros". FON's La Fonera routers have been designed to enable Foneros to share their home Internet access in a completely secure manner. Founded in February 2006 in Madrid, Spain, FON investors include Google, Skype, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and British Telecom. Currently FON has over 250.000 hotspots worldwide and more than 900,000 registered members in Europe, Asia and America.
For more information, visit FON at www.fon.com
Posted by Steve Ross on Technology | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Spam and Shirts
I'm happy to report we've fixed the comments section and I can once again receive and respond to your comments without losing them in a sea of spam. I look forward to hearing from everyone.
Just for fun I thought I'd show you a cool shirt I found at ThinkGeek. I realize it's not very useful but it is cool. Not "wear on a first date" cool, but the guys in the office will glow with envy. Great gift idea for the person that has everything.
Posted by Steve Ross on Gadgets | # Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
FON Wiki is live!
The FON wiki is live! Please drop in an take a look at the new wiki we've set up. If you have something to contribute it's welcome too!
Posted by Steve Ross on General | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Friday, July 18, 2008
NEW ZON@FON FREE WiFi COMMUNITY AIMS TO COVER PORTUGAL WITH 100.000 FREE HOTSPOTS
Madrid, Spain / Lisbon, Portugal:
Rodrigo Costa, CEO of ZON Multimédia, and Martin Varsavsky, Founder and CEO of FON announced today the launch of ZON@FON Free WiFi Community, a free WiFi service that will allow ZON Netcabo’s 400.000 customers to be part of the world’s largest WiFi Community.
The service is based on the revolutionary idea of a massive WiFi network, built through the contribution of individual customers to allow everyone, everywhere free access to the Internet.
From launch, ZON@FON will be Portugal’s largest WiFi network, with over 2.500 hotspots and part of the world’s largest wireless community, with over 250.000 hotspots worldwide.
The goal of the partnership is to dramatically increase the number of hotspots in the country, and contribute to the overall growth of the FON global community.
ZON@FON aims to have over 100.000 hotspots in Portugal, providing nearly ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet, further strengthening the offer of Zon Netcabo, Portugal’s broadband pioneer and innovation leader.
Anyone who uses a ZON@FON compatible router will host a hotspot that is based in a separate, secure channel, independent from their personal WiFi network.
ZON Netcabo will deploy access equipment with embedded ZON@FON functionality that will allow customers to host their own hotspot at no additional cost.
The internet connection provided by ZON Netcabo will carry all the hotspot’s traffic, but it will be separate from the user’s traffic and will not reduce the bandwidth from his internet access. This innovation was possible thanks to the superior speed and flexibility that cable networks offer, and was developed by FON and ZON exclusively for the ZON@FON Free WiFi Community.
The ZON@FON Free Internet Community will boost the usage of a whole new generation of devices, including: game consoles, GPS’s, cellular phones, PDA’s, I-Phones, in addition to traditional laptop computers.
About ZON Multimedia
With over 1,5 million TV, 400 thousand broadband and 200 thousand fixed line customers ZON Multimedia is Portugal’s leading provider of triple play offers. Originally a cable TV operator, ZON now offers multiple services across several platforms: cable, satellite, adsl and is now launching a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Additionally, ZON is Portugal leading content distribution and cinema exhibition company, though its ZON Lusomundo business.
For more information, visit ZON at http://www.zon.pt
About FON
FON is the world’s largest WiFi community. FON’s mission is to stimulate the growth of WiFi around the world by creating a global community of “Foneros”. FON’s La Fonera routers have been designed to enable Foneros to share their home Internet access in a completely secure manner. Founded in February 2006 in Madrid, Spain, FON investors include Google, Skype, British Telecom, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Coral Capital Management and Excite Japan. Currently FON has close to 1 Million registered members in Europe, Asia and America.
For more information, visit FON at http://www.fon.com
Posted by Steve Ross on Business | # Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
New Login Portal!
We've launched a new login portal! Thanks to all who gave us feedback, we've done our best to include your suggestions in the new login page. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Below are shots of the default and personalized pages. It's much cleaner and easier to understand then then our old page. We've got a mobile page coming soon too!
Default Page
Personalized Page
Posted by Steve Ross on General | # Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
100,000 broadband customers switch on to BT Fon
BT today announced that it has attracted over 100,000 members in the UK to BT FON, the world’s largest Wi-Fi community, where members share their broadband connection to establish a network of wireless hotspots. BT has also been recognised for its success with the BT FON community project, launched with its partner Fon, by being named the most Innovative Wireless Broadband Company by the 2008 Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards.
Since the launch of BT FON in October last year, 100,000 BT Total Broadband customers have come together to join the BT FON community, creating thousands of new Wi-Fi hotspots up and down the country.
In addition to the BT FON network in the UK, BT Total Broadband customers that join the BT FON community can access 3,000 BT Openzone hotspots at locations such as hotels, airports and railway stations, BT’s 13 UK wireless cities, and Fon’s global network of 190,000 hotspots. This provides BT Total Broadband customers with unrivalled Wi-Fi coverage across the UK and the rest of the world, allowing even more customers to experience the benefits of broadband both at home and when out and about.
Every BT customer that joins the BT FON community agrees to share a small portion of their home broadband connection, by opening up a separate, secure channel on their wireless router – the BT Home Hub. They are then able to use, free of charge, the BT FON hotspots of other members, BT Openzone hotspots, BT’s UK wireless cities, and Fon hotspots around the world.
Jon Hurry, Director Internet Services, Consumer, said: “It’s great to see BT Total Broadband customers joining forces to set up a people’s Wi-Fi network across the UK. BT has been instrumental in creating Broadband Britain, and we have built on that by calling upon entire communities to come together to create a Wi-Fi network that covers the country, driven entirely by local broadband users.
“We’ve already built extensive Wi-Fi coverage across the UK with BT Openzone and 13 Wireless Cities, but with more people signing up to BT FON everyday, Wi-Fi coverage in the UK is set to get better and better.”
Customers that sign up to BT Total Broadband Anywhere automatically join the BT FON community. Broadband Anywhere is the new all-inclusive broadband package from BT which offers customers a free, internet enabled Smartphone – the BT ToGo – for just £5 more per month than the price of BT Total Broadband Option 3. Today’s announcement means that Broadband Anywhere customers can enjoy unlimited access at even more wireless hotspots around the UK, allowing them to surf the web, email, make calls and text, both at home and out and about.
BT Total Broadband customers that are interested in joining the BT FON community can visit www.bt.com/btfon for more information about how to sign up. Customers can also visit the website to obtain a view of their local BT FON network. By simply entering a postcode, they can find the nearest BT FON or BT Openzone hotspots near to their home and to other places of interest. To encourage other people in their area to join the BT FON community and give their local Wi-Fi network an extra boost, promotional materials such as posters are also available to members to download from the website.
Customers who want to connect to broadband via BT FON while abroad can also visit the website to find Fon hotspots in other countries around the world.
From the summer, non-BT Total Broadband customers in the UK will also be able to join the BT FON community by purchasing FON’s Wi-Fi router, La Fonera.
Posted by Steve Ross on Business | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
New FON Spot Name
Thanks to feedback from some of our top Foneros we've learned that changing the FON_AP to a more attractive name significantly improved the number of visits. Based on this information we decided to change all FON Spots (public) signal names that weren't already modified by their owners.
How does this affect me?
This doesn't affect you. Your FON Spot visitors will now see this new signal name but nothing else has changed. Hopefully, youll even see an increase of visits! If you like, you can still the name to 'FON_nameyouwant', but we recommend that you to keep this new name or something similar. Instructions for changing the name are below.
How can I change the signal name?
There are two options
Option 1
1. Connect to the MyPlace? signal. 2. Open your browser and type http://192.168.10.1 and the console will be loaded. The standard user name and password are both the word "admin". 3. Click on "Public WiFi?" in the menu and then you can change the name behind the 'FON_'. Save your changes and the signal name will change. Perhaps you will have to wait a bit and/or refresh the WiFi? manager of your device to see the new signal name.
Option 2
1. Log into your My FON user area at fon.com with your FON username (email-address/password). 2. Then go to "Configure your FON Router" and in the Settings tab enter a new "Public Signal" 3. Save the FON Spot personalization.
Changes may take up to 30 minutes to take effect on your FON Spot. If you want the change to happen immediately, reboot you La Fonera
Posted by Steve Ross on Business | # Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
COMSTAR AND FON WIRELESS DEVELOP GLOBAL WI-FI NETWORK IN RUSSIA
Moscow, Russia – May 28, 2008 – “COMSTAR – United TeleSystems” JSC (“Comstar” or “the Company”) (LSE: CMST), the leading integrated telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that it has signed a strategic agreement with FON Wireless Ltd. (“FON”), a developer of a shared wireless internet access network based on Wi-Fi technology.
The FON network currently covers approximately 230,000 Wi-Fi hot-spots around the world. Any internet user with unlimited broadband internet access is able to use FON’s Wi-Fi router, La Fonera. This router is a part of the global Wi-Fi network which can be used by anyone who has WiFi-enabled equipment for internet access. The FON shared wireless network is, therefore, created and expanded by the users installing La Fonera routers, which can also be used for connecting to personal networks. Users can manage the amount of bandwidth they share with others. Security of sharing is ensured via a separation of the public SSID from the private SSID by a firewall.
Coral/ Sistema Strategic Fund, the venture fund set up by Sistema, is one of the owners of the FON network. The world leading companies and investments funds, such as Google, British Telecom, Skype, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Excite Japan are among FON’s investment partners.
Under the terms of the agreement, Comstar and FON will jointly develop a Wi-Fi internet access network in the region of Russia and CIS. Initially, it will be created on the basis of the Comstar subscriber base in Moscow who will be able to easily join the worldwide FON network. Within the framework of the project, Comstar plans to establish 30,000 Wi-Fi access points in Moscow in 2008-2009 before expanding to other regions.
Broadband subscribers in Moscow will be able to rent La Fonera routers from Comstar, connect them to their ADSL or any other broadband internet access channel and join the FON network. The service will provide internet access at no extra cost in any places covered by FON, including the Comstar – FON network, using personal login and password details for the Comstar’s Moscow ADSL network.
The subscriber’s access point will also become “public” and might be used for internet access by both FON customers and others. The access of external clients to Comstar – FON network will be implemented with the help of pre-paid cards, SMS authorization and other means of receiving login and password details. The pre-paid cards will be sold by Comstar and FON through their sales channels.
Denis Muratov, Vice President, Head of Innovations and Science, commented: “We are very interested in global innovation projects which allow the introduction in Russia of new technologies and business development models, such as Comstar and FON’s joint project to develop the worldwide Wi-Fi network in the territory of Russia. We see the global expansion of services provided by our subsidiaries as a positive development.”
Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar UTS, commented: “Comstar is an exclusive operator-partner of the FON network in Russia. The project with FON is an important addition to our programme of broadband access development aimed at providing our subscribers with the opportunity to be always connected. The agreement with FON will allow the users to join the global network in many places around the world, and we will be able to provide services not only to our subscribers, but also to other users in Moscow. We are planning to expand our joint project with FON to the Russian regions.”
Martin Varsavsky, the founder and co-owner of FON Wireless Ltd., added: “FON is a unique network, and it is becoming exceedingly popular in many countries. We are very interested in cooperation with Comstar. This company is actively operating in the internet access market and is the market leader by subscribers in Moscow. Comstar is currently implementing a number of projects aimed at developing wireless internet access technologies, which is of great interest to us because of the potential opportunity for synergies with the FON network.”
***
For further information, please visit www.comstar-uts.com contact :
Comstar UTS
Masha Eliseeva
Tel: +7 985 997 0852
ir@comstar-uts.ru
Shared Value Limited
Matthew Hooper
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7321 5010
comstar@sharedvalue.net
Comstar UTS is the leading fixed-line telecommunications company in Moscow. Comstar provides voice, data, television and other value-added services to residential and corporate subscribers and operators, using its extensive backbone network and exclusive last mile access to 97% of Moscow households. The Company also offers communications services in five Russian regions, Armenia and Ukraine. Comstar had 695,000 broadband subscribers in Moscow. Comstar had 3.6 million residential subscribers in Moscow, including 651,000 residential broadband internet subscribers in Moscow, 102,000 corporate subscribers in Moscow, and approximately 448,000 regional and international subscribers, including 33,000 residential broadband internet subscribers and 102,000 residential pay-TV subscribers, at the end of 2007. Comstar generated US$ 1,562.4 million of revenues and a 42.5% OIBDA margin for the twelve months ended December 31, 2007. Comstar’s Global Depositary Receipts are listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: CMST).
FON is the world’s largest WiFi community. FON’s mission is to stimulate the growth of WiFi around the world by creating a global community of “Foneros”. FON’s La Fonera routers have been designed to enable Foneros to share their home Internet access in a completely secure manner. Founded in February 2006 in Madrid, Spain, FON investors include Google, Skype, British Telecom, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Coral Capital Management and Excite Japan. Currently FON has over 800,000 members in Europe, Asia and America and their Community is growing fast.
For more information, visit FON at www.fon.com or contact:
FON Wireless
Nina Wiegand
Tel:+34 677923029
Mail.: nina@fon.com
Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Comstar UTS. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “will,” “could,” “may” or “might”, the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. Comstar UTS wishes to caution that these statements are only predictions, and that actual events or results may differ materially. Comstar UTS does not intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in projections or forward-looking statements of Comstar UTS, including, among others, general economic conditions, the competitive environment, risks associated with operating in Russia, rapid technological and market change in the industries Comstar UTS operates in, as well as many other risks specifically related to Comstar UTS and its operations.
Posted by Steve Ross on Business | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
FON Featured in the New York Times
FON and founder Martin Varsavsky are featured in a New York Times article. John Markoff does a good job showing the hurdles we've overcome and the ones we still face.
Posted by Steve Ross on Business | # Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Fonosfera: The FON Development Community
We're working hard on the launch of our next product, the Fonera 2.0. The Fonera 2.0 is a Fonera that will not only make it easy to provide WiFi for yourself and for your neighbors, it will also provide Foneros with great features like the ability to connect a hard drive to it and autonomously upload or download content from the Internet while you’re doing something else on your laptop or when your PC is off. In short the Fonera 2.0 will manage your daily relationship with the Web 2.0 doing such thing as sending your pictures to Flickr, your videos to Youtube, downloading your torrents, etc. Many of the things that the new Fonera will do a PC can do but why tie up a thousand dollar investment doing menial tasks when you can have a $49 Fonera do them.
The Fonera 2.0 will be an open platform for developers to build their applications on top of, much like a hacked iPhone is now. An open platform is nothing without a community of developers, so we’re announcing today the launch of The Fonosfera, our development community program that will span not only the Fonera 2.0 but all Fon products. We know there are already many communities doing great things with our Foneras, adding new features and fixing bugs. The idea behind the Fonosfera is to bring all the development work the communities have been doing and will do in the future to any Fon user.
The Fonosfera will be a chance for all these communities to keep working independently, while contributing to the development of Fon products including the Fonera 2.0 and the applications that will run on it. The Fonosfera will provide a space for gathering and sharing between developers and to make their projects available to end users all around the world. It will include a framework with development and community tools such as svn, trac, forums, mailing list, wiki etc. We already picked a few communities that have proved they can do great things with the Fonera and sent them a test version of our Fonera 2.0.
The Fonera 2.0 will provide a USB connection and users will be able to plug any sort of USB device to it (as long as there’s software support in the firmware, and we invite developers to add support for any device they might think of). The Fonera 2.0 will provide out of the box the ability to connect a hard drive or pendrive to it, so you can access it on your local network and use it to store the contents your Fonera 2.0 will download from the Internet for you. Another interesting feature we are working on is the ability to connect an HSDPA modem to the USB port of the Fonera 2.0, to share an HSDPA connection on the move or where DSL is not available.
We are working hard to make the Fonera 2.0 as open as possible, and we are willing to take all the help the development community can bring to Fon and Foneros. Our users will still have to wait a few months to get their Foneras 2.0, but we’re sure it will be worth the wait.
Posted by Steve Ross on Foneros | # Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
FON Raises $9.5 Million!
Great news! We've raised another $9.5 million to grow the movement! We've got lots of great plans for the money. We're going to Launch FON in Russia, launch the Fonera 2.0 (the fonera that uploads and downloads stuff to and from the internet while you are doing something else with your laptop) and develop the fonera 802.11n for an end of the year launch!
I'm really exited we were able to raise so much money, and not just because I'm expecting a gigantic raise ;)! It's a challenging economic climate and an investment this large shows support for our business model. The leading investor in the round was the US Venture Capital arm of Sistema, Russia´s leading telco. Other investors in this C round include Google, British Telecom, Digital Garage and our founder and CEO Martin Varsavsky.
Posted by Steve Ross on Business | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The World's Biggest Mexican Wave
BT and FON have launched The World's Biggest Mexican Wave! The wave is a fun way to spread the word about FON. Anyone can participate by following the instructions here. The wave is catching on! You can read more about it in The Sun article. We've got Peter Crouch and Jennifer Metcalfe signed up too!
Posted by Steve Ross on Events | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Friday, March 28, 2008
An update from Hong Kong
World’s first FON-enabled high-rise building!
We are extremely proud to announce that the Continental Diamond Plaza in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, is now the world’s first fully FON-enabled high-rise building. Continental Diamond Plaza has 29 floors, and is home to many restaurants and bars in the heart of the city. You will find FON_FreeWiFi signals at every floor, which takes us yet another step closer to covering the entire planet with WiFi Everywhere!
Entrance to Continental Diamond Plaza, the world’s first FON high-rise
FON Hong Kong Caring Company Logo 2007-2008
It is with great pleasure that we announce that FON Hong Kong was awarded the Caring Company logo 2007-2008 for its efforts to give back to the community. FON’s operations and charitable activities, donations, and initiatives for the past year were reviewed by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, who then awarded FON the Caring Company logo for achievements in all six Caring Company criteria (volunteering, employee friendly, employing the vulnerable, caring for the environment, mentoring, and giving).
The FON logo will be listed in “The Caring Company Commemorative Book 07/08”, jointly published by Hong Kong Economic Times and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.
We would like to say a big thank you to The Boys’ and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong for nominating us to the Caring Company scheme!
For more information, please visit the Caring Company web site.
Posted by Steve Ross on General | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
WiFi WOW
Intel has developed technology to send WiFi up to 60 miles! I read the article in Technology Review and immediately thought it was too good to be true. I hope I'm wrong! According to the story the technology is node to node, directional, moves up to 6.5 mbps, and requires very little power (think solar). There are some limitations. In real world testing it's useful to about 30 miles with a direct line of sight. There are more details in the video. With an estimated cost of $1000.00 this development could help bring technology to more rural areas soon.
Posted by Steve Ross on Technology | # Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
