Posts by David Garnier

It's official: Nokia bets on Microsoft for smartphones

Stockmarket reaction

As I speak, on the Euronext Nokia is down about 9% and Microsoft up 3%, which is what anyone would expect: Nokia finally admitting defeat and Microsoft's mobile division getting supercharged.

French cops take down mobile phone hacking ring

Took them a long time!

5 years ago I bought a code online to unlock my BlackBerry. The vendor did not explain how he was getting the code, but I'm pretty sure that it involved a telco employee with access to the system used to provide unlocking numbers.

Now the real question is "how come it took them so long to notice?" A simple comparaison between the number of codes requested through the official channels and the number of codes issued would do the trick.

Nokia pulls the plug on wireless payment handset

Actually fast enough for transport ticketing

I was seriously involved in the development and testing of an NFC-based transportation system and I can attest that transportation transactions with a phone are fast enough (i.e. less than 250ms). First, the SWP subsystem in the phone adds a mimimum amount of overhead (5-10%). Second, SIM cards that support SWP are typically faster than comparable full-size contactless JavaCards, because SIM cards are powered by the phone's battery while a contactless card relies only on the power transmitted by the reader.

Now it does not means that we are home free. Native transportation cards are still a lost faster than JavaCards (typically under 100ms). However, 250ms is "fast enough" and integrating the transportation application in a mobile phone opens many interesting use cases.