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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Post by e-mail

Post an update just sending an e-mail to your private address

1. Enter your location as the SUBJECT of the e-mail
Twitxr likes the google maps format, like "Carrer del Carme, 19, Girona" or just "New York, US"

2. Type the update text as the BODY
Remember, 140 characters or less

3. Attach the picture
Use a standard e-mail attachment. Most mobile phones can send pictures taken from the camera by e-mail.

4. Send it to your private twitxr e-mail address
The address should be kept private, and it can be regenerated at any time if you think that someone knows it.

How it works?

Each user is assigned a unique and easy-to-remember email address. It's displayed on the settings page. A new one may be generated at any time if you think that someone knows your address.

You can post text-only updates, picture-only updates or both. Be sure you send it as plain-text.

The post errors are replied to via the user e-mail provided to twitxr, not the e-mail box where the mail was sent (This is done for security reasons).

We're still very beta and as proof of concept we've released iTwitxr for the iPhone. So if you've jailbroken your iPhone you can install iTwitxr and quickly upload your tagged photos! You also have the option to automatically upload to Facebook and Twitter.

We're interested in your input and ideas so please let me know what you think!

FON Japan and Livedoor Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese Internet Service Provider, have joined forces and announce today that Livedoor’s Wireless access points will become FON-enabled, allowing FON users to connect for free to the Internet through these Wireless Access Points (APs).

In Japan, FON offers more than 31,000 FON APs (known as FON Spots) primarily in residential areas of Tokyo, the largest WiFi offer compared with domestic public wireless access service providers. Additionally, Livedoor Wireless has around 2,200 APs within Tokyo’s 23 wards, covering 80% of the area inside the Yamanote Line, one of Tokyo's busiest and most important commuter lines Tokyo. Through this partnership, FON users will be able to connect to a “FON_livedoor”signal that will be added to Livedoor Wireless’ APs, and they will benefit from a great increase in FON Spots within central Tokyo inside the Yamanote Line area and in commercial areas.

Usage of FON_livedoor will be free for FON members until August 4, 2008, and both companies plan to continue this service for free thereafter. About 100 FON_livedoor APs will be accessible from the start, and all 2200 APs will become FON-enabled by February 11th. Moreover, with this partnership, all “Livedoor” contents can be viewed from all FON Spots, including FON_livedoor, even before login.

For FON Japan, this partnership with Livedoor leads to an increase in the number of WiFi access points and an enhanced user experience. For Livedoor, this means greater traffic to their portal site “livedoor”. In the future, both companies will consider other partnership possibilities, such as two way roaming where Livedoor Wireless users can also access FON Spots.With the rapid increase in pocket size WiFi devices, the demand for WiFi on the go is definitely increasing significantly. By joining together, FON and Livedoor aim to build a WiFi environment whereby users can connect everywhere and build a new WiFi culture together.

This type of partnership where FON users can access APs operated by public wireless access service providers is the first of its kind by FON globally. FON Japan will continue to proactively seek similar ventures that enhance its users’ WiFi experience.

To celebrate this partnership, FON will launch an additional “Free Access Campaign” from February 4 to April 4th, whereby all FON Spots including FON_livedoor Spots will be accessible for free by all FON members, even those who have registered with FON but still do not yet share WiFi at home with a FON Router.

HOW TO USE THE SERVICE
1. Access to SSID called FON_livedoor with a WiFi device and open up your web browser. FON_livedoor’s original login page will be displayed.
2. Enter FON ID and Password from the login page and access the internet
3. FON_livedoor Spots will be displayed on FON MAPs with other FON Spots
4. Non-FON members can register from FON Spots including FON_livedoor AP and immediately access the Internet

The eStarling WiFi picture frame allows you to:
1. Link the frame to your favourite online photo album to automatically display your pictures (Flickr, Picasa and others).
2. Set up groups to instantly receive pictures from your friends and family's email accounts and cell phones.
3. Create your own picture playlists.
4. Create a email address dedicated to sending pictures directly to your picture Frame, even from your cell phone!

Keep your La Fonera online, and on Valentine's Day, you'll be eligible to win one of the 50 WiFi Frames. We'll give them away to those who show their love by sharing their WiFi! Details and official rules here.

Don't forget to check your La Fonera status! There's still time to keep your La Fonera online and get your free WiFi picture frame!

Get your WiFi heartbeat pumping and sharing the love!

Details and official rules here (PDF).