Saturday, September 1, 2012

The m9r is out

The m9r is out for a while now. While it took some time to get the m9 to where it is today (thus the blog name “the whole 9 yards”), the introduction of the snom m9r was so smooth that it was practically unnoticed.

The m9r was modified only in areas that have very low risk of bringing in instability. More memory never hurts in the computer industry, and on the handset side there were improvements with the handset plastic and acoustic. Also the antenna design was improved, giving the m9 a longer range than the m9 had before.

I believe that is okay. Stability is very important for the users of DECT phones; fancy features are expected on smart phones but for a DECT device, customers essentially want no surprises. The m9r is essentially like a facelift in the car industry, when they change the bumpers and throw in a few more extras.

The big question will be if we should come out with m9r firmware releases that take advantage of the increased memory. For example, I saw the comments on ZRTP: We did not include ZRTP on the regular builds because it takes up too much memory for stable operations in the m9. But we could include that in the m9r builds where memory is not such a problem. For now, we do this only for special builds and prefer to keep both variants with the same software. It does not only make our life easier, it also important for the m9 users that they continue to have access to the latest firmware.

6 comments:

  1. The m9r is an interesting product! Has it been QA'ed to handle multiple base units in one environment? I am looking to possibly set up three m9r base units in one office with four handsets linked to each. Will the base units / handsets interfere with call quality / connectivity? Could the our wireless network interfere also?

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  2. DECT has 120 time slots in Europe and most parts of the world (in the US, only 60 I believe) and runs in a spectrum exclusively reserved for DECT. You don't have to worry about the interference with WLAN or other wireless standards.

    There is Q/A for multiple base stations that run in parallel. DECT is actually used a lot in residential areas, e.g. large buildings with lots of tenants where you really don't want any interference. A key point is to use different PIN for the base station, so that you don't get confused when registering handsets. For example, PIN 1111 for the first base, 2222 for the second and so on. Also you have to keep in mind that those systems operate independently, so there is no handover from one base to another.

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    1. OK thanks! Just got the first set in today to prototype. I will let you know how it goes!

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  3. Hi,

    talking about those "special builds" for ZRTP. Will those also be available on http://wiki.snom.com?

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  4. When buying a 2nd-hand handset, is it possible to differentiate between the m9r and m9 by looking at system info, say?

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  5. The m9r base is essentially the same, just more more memory. So if you add more handsets, it should make no difference. The same applies to the handset, newer chip with more memory as well. The new base software (9.6+) should have the firmware for both handsets.

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