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 Since I got my iPhone 3GS a couple of months ago, I've been wondering when I would really benefit from its highly anticipated faster 3G capability. I finally got the answer, and as it turns out, the wait is far from over.

AT&T announced Wednesday details of its rollout plans for High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 3G technology. This is the next generation of 3G, and it offers up to 7.2Mbps data connection speeds (as opposed to the 2Mbps and 3.6Mbps of the current 3G).

(This is, of course, just the theoretical number. Typical real-world downlink and uplink speeds will likely be less than that depending on location, device, and overall traffic on the local wireless network at a given time. Nonetheless, this promises a significant boost. HSPA 7.2 is part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of technologies, which include GSM, UMTS, and the Emerging LTE technology. HSPA 7.2 offers backward-compatibility, meaning it also works with existing 3G and 2G devices at the lower device-specific speed.)

According to the announcement, the new speed will be available by the end of the year. Unfortunately, it's available only in six cities in the U.S., including Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles; and Miami. This means the rest of the country, including the San Francisco Bay Area where I am, must continue to wait.

 It's unclear how long the wait will be for the rest of the cities, but the company says it plans to deploy HSPA 7.2 in 25 of the nation's 30 largest markets by the end of 2010, and to reach about 90 percent of its existing 3G network footprint with HSPA 7.2 by the end of 2011

While this is rather sad news for me, for most people it won't mean much, as chances are your phone is not compatible with the higher 3G speed. Currently, the iPhone 3GS is the only HSPA 7.2-ready smartphone I know that AT&T offers.

However, AT&T assures that it will offer more compatible devices with the rollout of HSPA 7.2. The company expects to have six HSPA 7.2-compatible smartphones in its device portfolio by the end of the year, as well as two new LaptopConnect cards.

The rollout of HSPA 7.2 is part of AT&T's plan to invest some $18 billion this year, of which more than two-thirds is going toward broadband and wireless. Key projects of this investment include, in AT&T's words:

    * An initiative to substantially expand the wireless spectrum serving 3G customers in hundreds of markets across the country, using high-quality 850MHz spectrum. This additional spectrum expands overall network capacity and improves in-building reception. Deployments of this 850MHz spectrum are about 90 percent complete today, with local rollouts recently completed in New York, Atlanta, and Houston.
    * Addition of about 2,000 new cell sites to AT&T's network in 2009, expanding service to new cities and improving coverage in other areas.
    * Enabling widespread access to AT&T's Wi-Fi network to qualifying customers, allowing them to take advantage of the best available AT&T mobile broadband connection.
    * Preparation for field trials of 4G LTE wireless networks next year, with deployment planned to follow in 2011. This schedule aligns with industry expectations of when a wide variety of compatible 4G wireless devices will be available.

 What is Web conferencing? How is it different from video conferencing?
From a layman's perspective, if you think about virtual meetings, you'd typically imagine video conferencing, at one end of the spectrum. This is a real live interaction where you see the person and you are able to converse using this TV format.

And then at the other end of the spectrum is teleconferencing, which basically means talking over the phone, while many people are involved and contribute to the conversation. Web Conferencing lies somewhere in between. It brings the best of both worlds over the Internet, where you can do rich media collaboration. By rich media, I mean voice, video and data -- all of these elements can be exchanged through the same platform. So you are able to do the voice conferencing, teleconferencing and can even share/show the data residing on your desktop, which may be in the form of presentations, spreadsheets or in certain cases, even software, demos, programs or movie files.

Through this medium, it becomes possible to share just about any type of information that's available at your end, in any format, with your customer, prospect, partners or even your employees.


What presents a case for Web conferencing?
Let's try and understand this by way of an example. Take the case of a firm with 50 people, where 10 to 15 are located in the head office and the rest are spread across the country at different offices/locations. In case they have to coordinate with each other, they would either need to travel from one place to another or do it, most often, over phone or e-mails. However, by using Web conferencing tools, you can significantly improve your ability to connect and conduct meetings communicating effectively with the people at your branch offices, remotely. So, the connectivity and cost-effectiveness of this tool is great. But what really presents a case for adopting this tool is that it helps you keep in touch much more effectively with your partners and customers.


Can you explain this using a typical scenario in a small organisation, where communicating via Web conferencing may prove a value-add?
Sure. Let's take the example of an automobile component manufacturer who may be manufacturing a small component and is a part of a long supply chain. The firm may be taking raw material inputs from some vendors and then supplying the component to another company in the supply chain. In such scenarios, keeping in contact with the others in the eco-system may require a lot of travel and in many cases, a lot of communication over the phone or through e-mails.

But the entire review system that the firm may be doing over the phone or through employee visits, can be conducted through Web meetings. Using a Web conferencing tool, two or more parties can join the discussion and effectively share data, production spreadsheets, etc, and connect easily with people, both backward and forward in the supply chain.

You may even take the case of an accounting firm. A task like auditing the records of a client may involve several visits to the client's office. However, using a Web conferencing service, the accountants can view many of the documents online and discuss them with the client, simultaneously. Subsequently, with just one or two visits, the critical doubts can be verified. It can save a lot of time and money, which the firm may have otherwise spent in someone visiting the customer and reading through the documents in person.

Also, when you have done the preliminary work over a series of Web meetings, you become more efficient when you visit the client and can wrap up the remaining issues quickly. So, if there is a need to visit a client 10 times, then you can conduct the preliminary conversations online and the more important decisions, face-to-face.


How can organisations make the most of this service?
Any technology can be best utilised when you integrate it to your business processes. It serves best when you look at your overall business processes and then decide which process or function can be done most effectively by adopting a technological tool.

So, organisations need to ascertain which communication requirements can be addressed through a platform like this and what kind of situations would require a personal interaction. Even if you are saving 30 per cent of your travel costs by conducting meetings online, at the end of the year that will amount to significant savings.


What other benefits does Web conferencing bring to the table, especially in the current economic crisis?
Web conferencing is an effective communication tool for all times. However, in this time of recession, customers are expecting price cuts and manufacturers are wondering how they can deliver the same quality of products at lesser costs. One of the areas where people are trying to cut costs is in travel. A lot of business is being conducted through the Web. In such a scenario, Web conferencing offers a virtual meeting environment at a low cost. This is helping firms enhance productivity and save money.


When one opts for a Web conferencing tool, is there an option to either go only for the video component or the telephony component? Or does everything come bundled in the application?
As I said earlier, Web conferencing is all about the power of having an integrated communication experience where you have data, voice and video sharing. All these functionalities are available in one bundle. But you can use the elements as you want. If you want a basic video conferencing using a webcam, you can do that. You can also do a tele-conference, a functionality that comes integrated with the service. In other words, you can use any one element as a standalone function.


For voice sharing through this service, does one require a VoIP (Voice over Internet Telephony) phone?
No. The application integrates with the usual PSTN/public switched telephone network that usually exists in most offices. The service offers users a toll-free number to call. Users can even have a callback feature, in case they want.


What kind of a set-up does a firm require, to get started with this tool?
Actually, the requirements are very simple. As far as the Cisco WebEx platform is concerned, we are a fully hosted service. Which means that all our services are delivered on-demand, through a pay-as-you-go model, with users taking a monthly subscription. You really need to buy nothing. You can get started with it by deploying a simple Internet broadband connection, which today one can get for Rs 500 to Rs 1,000.

You need to have no software installation or hardware capabilities beyond a PC and an Internet connection. And all your services are hosted. The fixed cost for subscriptions can range between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 per month/per user, where users can have unlimited meetings and can add an altogether different dimension to their communications.


What kind of Internet connection is required for Web conferencing?
If you want to do simple data sharing and voice sharing, you can do it with a connection as low as 64 KBps. If you want to add the video element, we suggest that you use at least a 128 KBps. So it is within the normal broadband capability.


Doesn't the video element require 256 KBps or a higher speed broadband connection?
No. The video element works even with a low-speed broadband connection. It is similar to using a webcam with a chat program on a desktop. The clarity of the video however, will depend on the kind of bandwidth that you have -- the higher the bandwidth, the better the quality of the video and so with the data transfer speed.


Are there some free Web conferencing tools also available? If yes, how are they different from the paid ones?
There are plenty of free services available but these have limitations when it comes to being used as organisational communication tools. If I were chatting with my friends, then I would not mind using it as I may not want to spend money and may even not mind the jitters, delays and ads run in between. Nor would I worry about system failures or the absence of any support for troubleshooting.

But while conducting business online, firms don't wish to experience any such issues. Besides, when one is conducting official Web meetings on any unsecured platform that is subject to viruses, intrusions, etc, an organisation's confidential information is at stake. So, businesses rather like to opt for a service that offers them security, scalability, and an uninterrupted communication experience.

Those are the elements that prompt people to have a business conversation on a paid platform. The free service doesn't guarantee a reliable experience.


Do you think Indian firms are aware of such a modern-day communication tool? If not, what will it take to spread the word? What is the rate of adoption of Web conferencing tools by businesses in India?
India is one of the fastest-growing markets, especially when it comes to deploying Cisco WebEx services. Both large and small businesses are looking at this tool. Yes, awareness was an issue earlier. But the economic crisis has forced people to look for alternatives to the traditional way of traveling vast distances to communicate. So more and more people are going online and searching for cost-effective services that enable them to communicate without shelling out money on travels.


How different are the requirements of a small business firm from a large one, when it comes to using a Web conferencing service?
Conducting business online has nothing to do with the size of the organisation. The size of the business doesn't change the way you conduct meetings. That's why even WebEx has not customised any service based on the size of a firm. However, there are variations in the service available for different kinds of business activities like those involved with online-marketing, online-support, online-training, etc. Many large firms have these processes as separate units, departments or profit centres.

Netbooks are universally regarded for their portability, but no two netbook models are exactly alike, and each seems to come with different trade-offs. A netbook with a superior battery might have a horrible keyboard arrangement; a netbook with a solid-state drive might slip out of your price range; a netbook with a killer list of specs might be missing 802.11n connectivity. These are all common problems--and you won't find common solutions.

Due to their diversity, netbooks don't share common upgrade paths as typical desktop PCs do. Each model is unique in what you can do to it, and the exact procedures for modifying your device are as varied as the netbooks themselves. If you want to upgrade your machine, we recommend that you hunt down the instruction manual or, in the case of trickier upgrades, a community of users who can walk you through the process of modifying and hacking new functionality into your extremely portable PC.

That said, you can make a wealth of netbook customizations, and they range in difficulty from 5-minute routines to soldering-gun-based surgeries. We'll take you through some customizations for a Dell Mini 9, as it's one of the more tweakable netbooks we've come across. While your mileage (and procedures) will vary with your own netbook model, this guide will give you a good idea of the kinds of upgrades that could be possible for your machine and skill level.

Easy Upgrades

Insert a Better Battery

In our testing the Dell Mini 9's battery lasted around 3 hours, 34 minutes. That's not too shabby for a four-cell battery, but you can do better. Though you may find a few guides online that teach you how to create a laptop battery using a number of aftermarket batteries all wired together, that's a recipe for disaster. Instead, look to eBay: There you can pick up a 77-watt-hour, eight-cell battery that's entirely compatible with the existing connections (and size) of your Dell Mini 9. You'll double the longevity of your netbook--provided you aren't bothered by the unruly mass sticking out from underneath your system. To replace the battery, flip your netbook upside-down and move the two switches from the locked icon to the unlocked icon, and push up on the battery tray.

Upgrade the Operating System

If you want to install a new operating system onto your netbook, you certainly can: Just pop the CD in any external USB optical drive and install away.

    I'm a Tier 2 iPhone agent for Apple. I'd like to add that roughly one to two calls out of every thousand that I take deal with the battery "overheating".

    Generally, this incident can be described as "uncomfortably warm", and I have not ever received or heard of a coworker receiving a call about someone being injured by the iPhone, including people too stupid to stop using their phones after the screen is broken.

    We have a team of engineers whose specific jobs are to investigate any issues that could be classified as "Safety Issues". These Safety Issues are classified due to the injury of a person or a person's property from use of one of our products. Chargers catching on fire, batteries blowing up, or CD trays flinging CD's across the room and breaking your mother's antique vase would all be classified as safety issues.

    We get tens of thousands of calls, 99% iPhone related. Zero Safety Issues.

So let's recap: According to this alleged Apple agent, one or two calls out of every thousand are about the iPhone overheating, but there have been zero iPhone-related incidents so far. Seems like the French iPhone "explosion" plague is just a stupid summer media craze fed by some stupid French people.

 If Apple's mythical tablet is real-and given the spate of rumors from multiple sources, it certainly appears to be -- the device could be a natural-born book reader, ready to compete with Amazon, Sony, and soon Barnes & Noble in the burgeoning e-book market.

In fact, "compete" may be too soft a term. Apple could easily clean its opponents' clock. It could quickly dominate e-books much as it conquered e-music with the launch of iTunes in 2003.

 Yes, it's time for a boilerplate caveat. This is sheer speculation. My assumptions are based on what we've heard about the Apple tablet, and on what many users see as shortcomings of the Amazon and Sony e-readers.

First off, let's assume the tablet -- or at least the larger version of it -- has a 10-inch backlit display, wireless broadband, a touchscreen, and a Web

browser. If so, it would provide a better ergonomic experience than the Amazon Kindle 2, which lacks backlighting and a touchscreen. Let's also assume the tablet's display will have a higher screen resolution than the Kindle's 600 by 800 pixels, and that it'll do a better job of managing PDF files. Add it all up, and the tablet is a better user experience, excluding battery life. It's highly unlikely that Apple's multifunction device would outlast the Amazon or Kindle reader in that competition.

What about the Kindle DX, Amazon's larger e-reader with a 9.7-inch display? It suffers from many of the Kindle 2's shortcomings, and seems more like a niche player destined for the education/textbook market.

And the Sony Reader? Well, it's improving rapidly. The Reader Touch Edition has a 6-inch touchscreen; the Reader Daily Edition has AT&T's 3G mobile broadband. But like the Kindle, the Reader is essentially a single-use appliance. And with prices ranging from $200 to $400, it's a fairly expensive one at that. While reports indicate the Apple tablet may cost more -- probably in the $600 to $800 range -- it'll do a lot more too, perhaps even double as a notebook PC.

Apple has one big edge over Sony: Its iTunes store is an established online marketplace that already sells music, movies, TV shows, and, of course, iPhone apps. Cupertino doesn't have to reinvent the wheel to add e-books to its online retail mix. (Amazon, of course, is no slouch when it comes to online retailing either.)

To me, Apple's biggest advantage in the e-book reader market would be the versatility of its tablet. Given a choice between an Apple tablet as described above, a Kindle 2, and a Sony Reader Daily Edition (the one with built-in 3G), I'd be willing to pay a little more for the tablet.

Will Apple enter the e-book market? We may find out as early as next month.