Glo Networks Technical Blog (Glo Blog)

Since the release of the iPhone 4 Glo Networks have been impressed by the functionality of the video calling app, called FaceTime. FaceTime allows video calling between two iPhone 4′s via the internet (requires both device to be connected to WiFi).

Utilising either of the devices cameras (the iPhone 4 has a  camera on the front and the back) you can either switch from an existing voice call to video with a tap of an onscreen button or you can initiate a video call from the contacts list. As you can use either camera it’s possible to choose between showing your own image via the front camera, or showing whatever you point the back camera at (and still see the person you’re chatting to).

Apple seem to have been marketing the video calling capabilities of the new iPhone for leisure use, with adverts showing things like a couple sharing their baby’s smile or friends helping each other decide what to wear, however, we, here at Glo, are beginning to see  potential in the app for business purposes (particuarly in our line of work!).

Here’s an example: Imagine a situation where a cable has become unplugged in a server room. The person who discovers this may not know where the cable should be plugged in, and as such phones their IT support provider. Now from experience we can tell you it’s not always simple to describe cables, or the sockets they should be plugged into over the phone. However if both of the people in the call were able to use FaceTime they could simply point the rear camera at the cable in question and the support engineer will instantly be able to see what they’re dealing with!

Although FaceTime is only available on the iPhone 4 at present, and only with a WiFi connection,  Apple has pledged to release it as an open standard, allowing other companies to develop around it. This means you could soon be seeing FaceTime appearing on other devices, and possibly (with support from phone service providers) over 3g!

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Posted by James in Mobile | 2 Comments »

Windows Mobiles, and before it Pocket PCs, have been around for years. And I’ve been an advocate of them since 2001 when I started with my Compaq Aero. Obviously things have changed with Symbian, Android and iOS (iPhones) but I’ve always headed back to the Windows Mobile Devices in the end, that is until now ..

Having had an iPhone 3G  since it’s launch I’ve been a reluctant fan. I say reluctant fan as it’s GPS was very flaky (moving me to a motorway slip lane at it’s whim), screen resolution is ‘low’, none-upgradable storage and battery is plain daft, not having access to the Gbs of space on the device and lastly not being able to carry out any form of customisation all mounted to a less than perfect experience.So I tried out the Motorola Droid (Milestone) with Android and the HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.

Even though the Motorola had a physical slide out keyboard I couldn’t use it. My manly thumbs just couldn’t press the one key I wanted at a time and resulted in me spending ages correcting myself. Androids App Store, marketplace wasn’t as easy to use as the (Apple) App Store and I really couldn’t find a nice text file reader that did exactly what I want (AirShare on iOS). Android seemed nice and I can see the potential but it just wasn’t polished enough for me and so the device went back within 5 days.

The HTC HD2 was another fun experience but lasted nearly 5 months. A fantastic bit of hardware with a gem of a screen. Everything looked amazing on it with it’s high resolution. In the end though a number of niggles got to me, the on-screen keyboard just didn’t cut the mustard and, though it was a good attempt, it just didn’t have the same responsiveness that the iPhone offers.

All this makes me wonder how good the HTC EVO is. Combining the lovely HTC hardware with the new ( hopefully polished?) Android OS, sounds like it could be the ideal match!

So now the iPhone 4 is here, and looks like it could well be the answer to my wants and needs. Although one of my colleagues here at Glo did brave the queues and pick up an iPhone4 on release day, we’ve yet to have an opportunity to give it a thorough testing, however with a bit of luck the GPS will actually work correctly off the bat and I wont need a car cradle for it to fo it’s job properly! With Skype no longer working or supported on Windows Mobile devices and no sign of it ever coming to Windows Phone 7 and a similar situation in the case of a decent Spotify client coming, I doubt I’ll be heading down the MS phone route again. Pitty as I have had a lot of love for that platform, it just looks very aged now.

Having said all that the Samsung Galaxy S running Android looks is very interesting indeed !

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Posted by James in Mobile | No Comments »

Apparently some of us here at Glo Networks have been slacking on keeping up with the Apple iPad release information, and this has been on the Apple website for about “a week”.

However, incase you’re like the rest of us geeks who don’t bow entirely to the feet of Jobs then you may be interested in hearing that the iPad is due for release in the UK on Friday 28th of May, with pre-orders being accepted from Monday 10th of May.

Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland also have the same dates.

The iPad has a suggested retail price of £429 (inc. VAT) for 16GB, £499 (inc. VAT) for 32GB, £599 (inc. VAT) for 64GB for Wi-Fi models and £529 (inc. VAT) for 16GB, £599 (inc. VAT) for 32GB and £699 (inc. VAT) for 64GB for Wi-Fi + 3G models. However, some mobile carriers (O2, Vodafone and Orange) in the UK have plans for subsidised units.

Interestingly Apple are claiming that they have sold over one million iPads and users have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

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Posted by Karl in General, Mobile | 2 Comments »

According to this help document on the Skype website they are no longer supporting or providing Skype for Windows Mobile. And within days of that annoucement it appears that Skype is now avalible on Symbian.

Of course Windows Phone 7 isn’t Windows Mobile so they may well change their mind when it comes out.

But with a supposed $1 billion investment on the way from Microsoft in the mobile market things could get interesting.

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Posted by Chris in Mobile | No Comments »

Faxing from user desktops is an IT solution Glo Networks have been able to provide to several customers but a short while ago we were asked about something new to us: sending SMS from user desktops.

After some investigation we found our chosen faxing software, GFI Faxmaker, could also be configured to send SMS. This is done via a third party SMS gateway, namely Clickatell.

SMS credits are purchased from 3rd Party supplier and Faxmaker is then setup to forward outgoing SMS to the online gateway. Now all the user has to do is send an email to mobileno@specifieddomain.com and the body of the email will be sent to the mobile as SMS.

We’ve already set this up for one customer and would be more than happy to discuss/answer any queries regards the solution.  Please feel free to contact us for more information.

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Posted by James in Mobile, Software | No Comments »