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
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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
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Gmail and FON
You can now access your Gmail free at all FON Spots! For some time we've allowed everyone to view Google maps, news and search. We're now experimenting with Gmail too! We've learned that when people get to try FON they are more likely to buy a day pass or become a Fonero by purchasing a Fonera and sharing at home so they can roam for free. This is one more way to introduce people to FON and thank Google for investing in us!
Posted by Steve Ross on General
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Panasonic FON-enabled Skype WiFi Phone
FON and Panasonic have teamed up to FON-enable the Panasonic Skype WiFi phone! It's now easier then ever for users to connect to any FON Spot and call for free to other Skype users. Skype also has very low rates for calls to non-Skype members.
The phone is on sale in Japan and comes with a WiFi router for use at home. When your not at home the Skype WiFi phone automatically connects to any FON Spot when one is detected. During the initial set up you enter your FON login and password and phone stores them and connects automatically in the future.
This is a great option for our Foneros living in Tokyo where we've reached 80% coverage! I use Skype regularly and recommend it!
Posted by Steve Ross on Gadgets
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Saturday, March 1, 2008
Ubuntu and OS X Update
It's been while since I've posted an update on my conversion to Ubuntu and OS X so I wanted to share my progress.
Ubuntu:
I upgraded to 7.10 with no difficulty on my desktop machine. I've had no issues and my only complaint is the lack of a driver for my printer and webcam. Because I'm on the go this machine doesn't get a lot of use by me. At one point I loaned it to my parents when their motherboard went. I made a few quick changes to give it a more Windows look and feel so they could easily adjust. They said it worked great! I've been recommending Ubuntu to all my friends. I frequently have this conversation right after they tell me about all the problems they have with Vista.
Frequently Used Software:
･Word Processing / Work Productivity: OpenOffice works great!
･Browser: Firefox
･Music: I haven't found a single app. I'm using consistently. Suggestions welcome.
OS X:
I'm spending most of my time on my MacBook. (I'm sitting in a barber shop typing this post on it) I'm running 10.4.11 and thinking about upgrading to Leopard. Chris Hart of the Connecticut Macintosh Connection gave a good presentation on it last week. Yes, I attended my first Mac Users group meeting, let the Fanboy accusations fly.
Frequently Used Software:
･Word Processing / Work Productivity: NeoOffice is fantastic. Use it.
･Browser: Flock. It's based on Firefox but comes out of the box with lots of great features. A media bar shows my favorite Flickr tags and I can drag and drop photos to my friends on Facebook in the sidebar. (I haven't tested any other social networks)
･Music: Spotify. When I heard about Spotify my initial reaction was that I needed another music streaming service like I need a hole in my head. Then I tried it and my opinion changed. Most of the time I'm in front of my computer when I listen to music so it works fine for me. You can't move music from Spotify to any portable players. It's streaming only but the library of music is huge and the interface is clean. Spotify is still in private beta. Go sign up.
･Photos: Flickrbooth. It automatically uploads every photo taken with Photo Booth to my Flickr account. For me it's great because my 3 year old daughter loves to play with it and take photos of herself making silly faces. I can watch them roll in while I'm at work (errrr.....on break). I've read about cases where a laptop was stolen and they ended up with a nice stream of the thief in Flickr. I guess this could be considered a poor mans security device too!
･Security: Trucrypt. Good easy to use encryption program to keep your confidential documents safe. Like details of our next ...... never mind ;)
･Widgets: Airport Radar for displaying available wireless networks. Screenshot Plus for quick captures of the entire screen or a smaller desired area. IStat pro to monitor system performance.
Posted by Steve Ross on Technology
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