As we wait for MoGo’s headset rollout, Sprint rolled out the next generation of cell phone usage in parts of Denver and Indianapolis with little fanfare.

It’s a small cellular base station they’re calling “Sprint Airave” (warning: link launches a talkative video) and it provides service specifically to a customer’s home.

The way it works is fairly simple. The base station is plugged into a broadband Internet connection and works with any Sprint handset. When the subscriber leaves home, a call shifts over to the outside cellular network.

The initial purchase price is US$49.99. So low that many industry analysts postulate that Sprint is subsidizing the expense. The monthly usage rates are similarly priced at $15 for an individual and $30 for a family for unlimited local and nationwide long-distance calls while at home.

The key to the base system is something called a “Femtocell”. The word comes from physics, and means ‘on a small order of size’. The technology has been around a long times to solve the problem of weak cellular signals in homes, which is common in the U.S. but the cost of making them portable was considered prohibitive.

The base stations work not only to extend the functionality of the cell phone the customer already has but also as an alternative to Wi-Fi phones in the home.

Sprint is the first to enter the market with femtocell technology for their domestic customers. The corporation has announced that they will be in wide distribution in 2008.

According to Yahoo!;

“…one  question yet to be answered about femtocells is whether they will interfere with the existing outdoor cellular network. That can only be answered through real-world deployments, analysts say.”

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As we anticipate the rollout later this year for MoGo’s Bluetooth headset, more and more states are introducing laws that will make these headsets not only useful, but lawful.

A hands-free solution, like a Bluetooth, may be the only thing that stands between you and an expensive ticket.

Or, more importantly, an accident.

While there are no firm statistics yet that prove the danger of using a phone while driving, common sense and anecdotal evidence from accident reports both demonstrate that splitting your attention while driving just isn’t safe.

Over a dozen states as well as the District of Columbia have passed bans on cell phone usage (either talking without a headset or texting) while driving - most as restrictions for teenagers.

But California is now leading the pack with a recently passed law that goes into effect July, 2008.

The legislation is applicable to all drivers of all ages and makes it a violation to talk on your mobile without a headset while driving. The pain, if caught, is to the tune of a $285 ticket . That will be DOUBLED in construction zones.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s daughter turned driving age this year, which may explain why he signed the new law. However, make no mistake - this IS a sign of things to come nationally. The US is way behind the rest of the cell-phone world when it comes to these kinds of laws which have been in place for a long time abroad.

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Everyone here at MoGo just wants to take a moment to wish you and all yours an extremely Happy Labor Day!  Hopefully you’re actually enjoying today as a day off and not sitting in some hot, stuffy office reading this post.

Whatever the case may be, enjoy today, be safe and be happy and remember that everyone here at MoGo wishes you a very Happy Labor Day!

Now…go outside and enjoy what’s left of summer wherever you may be!

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Man, could I have managed to manually manipulate any more words with the letter “M” in that title?!  I think not.  Nevertheless, I digress.  I just read a cool article about something that should make the lives of Mobile Warriors around the country yet again easier.  First comes the Pizza with a Text message, now comes even easier mobile shopping.  Where does it end?!

That’s right, mShopper is aiming to make all things mobile shopping a lot easier for you, your friends and anyone else who has ever wanted to, or actually purchased something via their cell phone.  According to the article I just read at MobileCrunch, the mShopper application helps by:

“…providing prices and specs on thousands of products in real time. Up-to-date information in changes can be easily accessed…the mShopper search engine allows you to find a product with as few as two or three characters. For example, if a shopper is interested in a Panasonic HDTV, typing “pan” and “hdt” would result in a hit. If a search results in too many hits, additional descriptions can be added to narrow the field. This feature helps when shopping for something in a certain color or size.”\

Not too bad at all.  Combine this technology with Bluetooth ad’s and we’re talking 21st century stuff.  Combine all That with a MoGo Headset and you’re really in luck as shopping, browsing, listening and participating in the mobile world gets easier every day.

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In the past week, 4 of you have sent variations of the same question:

Q. Will the new X54 work with my Laptop? I have a regular PC Card slot, not one of the new ones thanks.

A. Here’s the word from MoGo:

No, the X54 family is intended for the new ExpressCard/54 slot available on newer laptops.

According to the FAQ: The BT, X54 and X54 PRO mice are not compatible. An ExpressCard/54 slot is needed to charge the MoGo Mouse X54 and X54 PRO and a PC Card (PCMCIA) slot is needed to charge the Mogo Mouse BT.

A quick way to check which slot you have is by taking a credit card, holding it flat, and sliding it into the card slot. If the card slides all the way into the slot you have a PCMCIA slot. If the card only slides about half way into the slot you have an Express/54 slot.

There is a guide available to help you choose the right MoGo mouse for your system here: MoGo Platforms.

Q. According to the Sales Guy at (the place I bought my laptop) - my new laptop has Bluetooth 2.1 and I should check if your equipment will be compatible with that version of Bluetooth.

A. I’m glad he calls himself Sales Guy and not a technical expert.

All Bluetooth releases have been backward compatible. That means that if your new laptop (and congratulations, by the way, on the purchase) was bundled with the recently released Bluetooth 2.1 standard then it should work with all Bluetooth devices.

Rest assured, the MoGo products can be used with either a Bluetooth 1.2 or a Bluetooth 2.1-enabled laptop.

If you’d lke to read more on the topic, C|Net did a great chart outlining Bluetooth compatibility.

Elizabeth is a professional writer & geek with most of the last decade spent in senior management at a leading global IT provider. Thousands have attended her seminars in the US & Canada on subjects ranging from basic TCP/IP networking to high-end data storage solutions.

Got a question? Ask Elizabeth.

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Officially official.  I’m starting to dig that little phrase, so I think I might use it again, maybe once more, but that’s all.  So what’s officially official (last time, see) is the fact that Bluetooth 2.1 is in, Bluetooth 2.0 on its way out.

According to the article over at WinBeta, there are quite a bit of good things that are going to ride the crest of the Bluetooth 2.1 wave:  “The update to the 2.0 spec promises to implement a technique known as Sniff Subrating to improve battery life by as much as five times in hardware that needs a steady stream of data; keyboards, mice, and watches are just a few of the examples, the SIG says. Updating to 2.1 should also greatly simplify the pairing process by having a host device automatically pair with devices by looking for certain device classes (such as headsets) rather than requiring special actions on both ends.”

Anytime something simple gets even simpler, it’s a good thing folks.  Just think, soon, MoGo and all our happy little products will be even simpler (is that possible?) to pair with the device of your choosing.  Nifty aye?  The great news is, reports are streaming in that suggest that the switch from 2.0 to 2.1 might not be all that tricky and might not require any significant chipset changes.

That, I like to hear.  At any rate, read up on the news, see what you think, then come back here and sound-off with any questions, tips, wonderings or just simple statements of fact.  We love hearing what’s roaming your dome.

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Man, I seriously can’t wait for the MoGo Headset now.  Talk about the perfect Autumn distraction when we SHOULD be in school, SHOULD be listening to professors, or SHOULD be taking notes…now AT&T is officially live with their “Video Share” that allows users to share live video over their cell phones while talking.  Mmm.

Imagine this, pay off one of your friends to actually sit in on a class for you, kick back and watch from the comfort of your bed/futon/couch/favorite sports bar.  Now you can watch the World Series AND your professor at the same time.  Not bad friends, not bad.  Toss in the tiny-in-stature-but-huge-on-features MoGo Bluetooth Headset and you are officially in business.

Be advised you do have to pay for this service (at $4.99, who’s NOT going to pay for it) and details are not yet in on how well it works.  I’m just excited it DOES work.  Everyday I wake up we’re a heck of a lot closer to the Minority Report realities.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!

Sound off, I’d love to hear what other kind of futuristic things YOU are excited for.  What don’t we have that we should?  What do we have that we shouldn’t?  Best answer gets a big pat on the back.  Sorry, it’s all I got for now.

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Alright, show of hands, who has run out of laptop battery life at the absolute WORST time? Was it on a long plane flight, in the middle of the boredom-reducing movie you were playing? Was it during a presentation? Was it during a long email? Whatever the case, the chances are high that at some point, you’ve run out of coveted battery life at the worst time.

Those days could be over! I just found a sweet article over at Lifehacker via FriedBeef.com that has 15 tips on how to suck the most juice out of those little battery bricks. For brevity sake, since you’re a Mobile Warrior and time is of the essence, here are the Top 5 ways to get more battery life, head over and check out the full article for 10 more helpful ways:

“1. Defrag regularly - The faster your hard drive does its work - less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it’s on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.

2. Dim your screen - Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.

3. Cut down on programs running in the background. Itunes, Desktop Search, etc. All these add to the CPU load and cut down battery life. Shut down everything that isn’t crucial when you’re on battery.

4. Cut down external devices - USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.

5. Add more RAM - This will allow you to process more with the memory your laptop has, rather than relying on virtual memory. Virtual memory results in hard drive use, and is much less power efficient. Note that adding more RAM will consume more energy, so this is most applicable if you do need to run memory intensive programs which actually require heavy usage of virtual memory.”

There you have it! Enjoy the rest of your day, get the most juice you can, and stay mobile!

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A. Ever since Tyler first posted about his dislike of ‘Bluecasting’ (also known as Bluejacking) , it’s got a lot of people asking me - if it’s so easy to push unwanted information TO a Bluetooth headset, does that mean people can PULL information through my Bluetooth device, too?

The simple answer is yes.

Since almost the very moment Bluetooth was released, hackers have been building ways to crack it.

The first Bluetooth breaches were through an early security hole. Nicknamed “Bluebugging: “, hackers took advantage of this backdoor to eavesdrop as well as access and even overwrite a phone’s address book and text message files. As with any Bluetooth security breach, the hacker had to be within 30 feet of your phone.

Starting in 2005, most new Bluetooth-enabled phones were cured of this, although hackers are always writing new code and new programs to breach security.

As that hole was being plugged, hackers discovered that Bluetooth phones in ‘Discoverable’ mode could be accessed . This is called “Bluesnarfing“.

Unauthorized users ‘pair up’ to your Bluetooth and once linked, can steal the whole of your phone book, that’s your whole contact list, your calendar, your stored pictures, even your ring tones.

There is also something called a ‘DoS’ attack. A Denial-of-Service is a malicious hacker who broadcasts a code that makes your device unavailable to you until it reboots (turned off and then turned on again). There’s usually no breach of your information in a DoS attack, or harm to your headset or phone. It’s just idiocy for idiocy’s sake.

Should these security concerns keep you from buying and using say… a new MoGo headset?No. The good news is that there are things you can do to keep your calls and information safer.

1) Turn off discoverable mode.

Most phones are “visible” (or set to ‘Discoverable mode’) by default when Bluetooth is switched on. The safest mode is ‘Non-discoverable’:

1. Non-discoverable mode: Does not respond to inquiry - highest safety for your phone. .
2. Limited discoverable mode (or ‘Hidden’): Discoverable only for a limited period of time, during temporary conditions or for a specific event - this provides medium safety.
3. General discoverable mode: Discoverable continuously or for no specific condition - no safety from Bluejacking or Bluesnarfing.

2) Use a strong PIN code for you headset.
Not only should you choose a strong PIN, you should also be careful not to use it in public where it can caught by someone watching. If your headset and phone become unpaired, go somewhere private to link them back up .... not standing in the middle of the mall.

3) Never, ever let an unknown device pair to your phone. Periodically watch the Bluetooth symbol on your phone. If it looks different, or you see an unexpected message appear on your device asking to pair up, well, to quote Nancy Reagan - just say NO.

Unsure what the Bluetooth symbol is supposed to look like? Apple has a great article showing all the Bluetooth icons and their meanings here.

4) Keep Moving. PC Today said it well: “Unless your attacker has invested vast amounts of time and money in a long-range Bluetooth transmitter/receiver, chances are great that they will be operating within standard Bluetooth range (within 10 meters [33 feet]). If you notice something wacky happening with your smartphone or PDA and don’t know what else to do, simply get up and move away.

“If you are on a bus, train, airplane, or other confined area, simply power off your device and wait to see who reacts. If you catch them, make sure to give them a dirty look. ”

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On Fridays, MoGo Mobility’s Elizabeth will seek to answer your MoGo (and non-MoGo) technical questions.

Elizabeth is a professional writer & geek with most of the last decade spent in senior management at a leading global IT provider. Thousands have attended her seminars in the US & Canada on subjects ranging from basic TCP/IP networking to high-end data storage solutions.

Got a question? Ask Elizabeth.

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Today, my loyal readers, is Independence Day!  That said, I just want to take this moment to wish ALL of you a very, very Happy 4th of July from everyone here at MoGo!  I know I speak for us all when I say I hope you have a safe, happy, relaxed and entertaining holiday!

I won’t suggest this often, so brace yourself:  Immediately after reading this post, turn off your computer, turn off your cell phone, turn off your television, stand up, go outside, play.  When you’re tired of playing, fire up the BBQ, feed the neighborhood, then set off as many fireworks as you can afford.  When that’s over, rest assured we’ll be here Thursday morning, ready to give you the hip, the current and the cool in the wireless and Bluetooth world!

Happy Fourth of July! 

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