Betanews - Wireless

Windows Marketplace for Mobile now available in browser, iTunes' App Store still not

Tim Conneally — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:48:22 -0500

Sure, Apple created the most popular and well-stocked mobile app store in the market, but does Apple provide a Web-based interface to it? No. Through Apple's official channels, you can only browse the store's contents in iTunes or on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

There is an unofficial site hosted on Google App Engine which provides roughly the same experience Apple provides in iTunes, but it lacks search functionality, and if you try to download something, it launches the iTunes installer.

To prevent this problem, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the app store for Windows Phones, launched a Web-based storefront yesterday. Users can now go to marketplace.windowsphone.com to browse, search, buy, and download Windows Mobile apps from within their browser.

When users select an application from the site, it's put a the download queue which will immediately run the next time the Marketplace client is run on the user's mobile device.

"Marketplace has been extremely active and I couldn't be happier with the reactions from both developers and customers," Microsoft's senior director of mobile services, Todd Brix said. "We've been open for just over one month and already we can see that there's demand for an application marketplace that doesn't compromise on quality or experience."

Out of the many app stores put up in the last year, only a few storefronts have been brought to the Web browser. The Web-based Android Market, for example, provides a weak overview of what is available instead of an actual database of the more than 10,000 Android apps available. Users cannot buy directly from the official Web interface, either.

The Web interface for BlackBerry App World, however, has a substantial catalog which can be browsed, and apps can be sent as emailed links to the user's device.

Facebook for iPhone developer goes from Apple supporter to 'I quit!' in 3 months

Tim Conneally — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:30:28 -0500

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

If you're an iPhone user with a Facebook account, chances are good that you have Facebook for iPhone. In fact, it has roughly 17.3 million users, or about 28% of the 60 million users accessing Facebook on a mobile device.

One of the developers who worked on that app is Joe Hewitt, who today tweeted: "Time for me to try something new. I've handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I'm onto a new project."

He's not just leaving the Facebook project, but abandoning the iPhone altogether.

Hewitt told TechCrunch today that he quit the project because of Apple's strict approval and management policies in the iTunes App Store.

He said: "My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple's policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer."

This is quite a turn of events, considering Hewitt's last blog entry in August said: "No matter how annoyed I get, I will not stop developing for Apple's platforms or using Apple's products as long as they continue to produce the best stuff on the market. I never forget how deeply Apple cares about making their users happy, and that counts more than how they treat their developers. Besides, when I have a problem with a friend, I don't threaten to boycott our friendship until they change, so I'm not going to do that to Apple either."

The developer he's handed the app over to is Owen Yamauchi, a Facebook software developer and former Apple engineer.

The Samsung Intrepid: A nice phone, if you can accept Windows Mobile

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:27:48 -0500

By John P. Mello, Jr., TechNewsWorld

Business users whose lives revolve around their mobile phones won't be disappointed with Samsung's Intrepid smartphone. The handset, which uses Sprint's 3G network (EV-DO Rev.A) domestically and also connects to 3G networks abroad, is packed with features aimed at the pinstripe crowd.

Intrepid (USD$149.99, excluding taxes, with two-year service agreements, $50 instant savings and $100 mail-in rebate) runs under the latest version of Microsoft's cellphone operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional.

One improvement in this edition of Windows Mobile is a customizable Today screen. It displays frequently used features, the arrival of new text and e-mail messages, missed calls, and calendar appointments. You can also dial calls from the keyboard when that screen is displayed. Typing numbers from the keyboard ordinarily requires the use of the "Fn" key. That would make keyboard dialing very awkward. In Today mode, though, numbers can be dialed without using Fn.

Built for road warriors

Intrepid is designed for power-hungry business users. It has Microsoft Office Mobile for editing Word and Excel files and viewing PowerPoint presentations. Email is handled through Windows Mobile e-mail. Other features include stereo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, microSD card support, and easy access to social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, as well as instant messaging and threaded text messaging.

The unit is a one-piece mobile phone along the lines of the Palm Pixi or Treo Pro.

On the unit's front is a QWERTY keyboard and 2.5-inch display. Between the keyboard and display are controls for starting and ending calls, accessing the Windows Mobile operating system, navigating around the screen and giving the OK to perform a function. In addition, there are two "soft" keys which change function from task to task.

Comfortable keyboard

The phone's 320-by-240 pixel display is sharp and bright, but text in smaller fonts is difficult to read. Items displayed in the screen can be manipulated via touch or a telescoping stylus that is conveniently stored in the side of the phone. The addition of the stylus is a necessary one since some of the icons on the screen are so small, poking them with a finger can very difficult. Generally, the display is responsive to tapping by digit or stylus -- although less so compared to something like an iPhone or iPod touch -- but from time to time multiple jabs are necessary.

The QWERTY keyboard is comfortable to use for thumb typists. Because the keys are rounded slightly, they can be securely pressed without accidentally hitting an adjacent key. Some of the keys do double duty on the keyboard. These secondary functions appear as red characters above the QWERTY ones and can be accessed via an Fn key. The typography for the secondary characters is very small and largely difficult to see.

Designed for convenient use

On the left side of the Intrepid is the volume control and charger. On the right side of the unit are the power and camera buttons and the compartment for the stylus. At the back of the unit is the lens for its 3.2-megapixel camera, a speaker and a reflective button. The button can be used to frame self-portraits or arms-length shots. On top of the phone is a jack for a headphones.

As sophisticated as the Intrepid is, it's designed for convenient use. Need to make a call? Press the green talk button. A telephone keypad pops up on the screen. You can start poking in numbers or use screen icons to access your address book or a log of recent calls. If you start punching in numbers, as you do so, the phone automatically checks the address book and call logs for the digits and dynamically displays corresponding matches on the screen. This technique greatly speeds up the process of making a call.

When you've found the number you're looking for, you can poke an onscreen send button to make your connection. Once connected, more buttons appear that allow you to turn your speaker on or off, access your call log, make a note about the call or mute the phone. The speaker button is especially opportune because it eliminates the need to hunt for the speaker control when you're making a call.

Office in a pocket

Both still images and video can be captured with the Intrepid. Its 3.2 megapixel still camera produces images in four sizes from 640-by-480 to 3,048-by-1,536 pixels and has a number of advanced features for a phone cam. For instance, shots can be over- or under-exposed with exposure compensation. Multiple images can be garnered rapidly in continuous capture mode. It even has smile recognition, where the camera won't fire its shutter until it detects the subject smiling.

The phone's video camera also has exposure compensation. It has three video qualities -- high, normal and economy -- in two sizes (320-by-240 and 176-by-144 pixels) as well as a variety of white balance settings (auto, tungsten, fluorescent, daylight and cloudy), metering choices (center weighted, spot and matrix) and special effects (black and white, sepia, aqua and negative).

The Samsung Intrepid is stuffed with features that enable a businessperson to carry around an office in her or her pocket. However, although the latest version of Microsoft Mobile is improved over previous editions, it still lacks the intuitiveness of its newer competitors. It feels like a desktop operating system downsized uncomfortably to run on a small screen. That kind of compromise, however, may be irrelevant to Windows shops looking for some robust hardware that gives their users a familiar interface on both their big and little screen devices.

Originally published on TechNewsWorld

Nokia's 'limited number' of recalled chargers exceeds 14 million

Tim Conneally — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:22:25 -0500

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Leading mobile phone maker Nokia today announced a recall of three types of Nokia-branded phone charger which were found to be a shock hazard.

The chargers were manufactured by Chinese mobile phone component firm BYD International Electronic Company this year. Nokia today said that the plastic covers of these chargers could come loose and open up to expose the internal components which could shock the user if handled improperly. Nokia said it was not aware of any injuries or incidents related to these chargers.

Nokia is offering a free replacement to affected units, which carry the model numbers AC-3U, AC-3E, or AC-4U. Since these were all made within the last six months, if you purchased a Nokia charger before June 15, 2009, you are not impacted by this recall.

Nokia has not detailed the breadth of this recall, saying in the recall statement that only "a limited number" of chargers are affected. In Nokia's blog, the company was equally vague, noting that it's only "a limited number of chargers manufactured over a short period available in a select number of countries."

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has not yet issued a warning for consumers in the United States, which would indicate exactly how many units were affected in the US, if at all. Several sources have reported that the recall encompasses 14 million units, but that has not been officially declared by Nokia.

We contacted the company this morning to confirm this number and find out which devices shipped with these adapters, but the company has not yet responded.

The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:30:32 -0500

By Richard Adhikari, MacNewsWorld

The iPhone went on sale last week in China, and it landed more or less with a thud. Cupertino's carrier partner in that country, China Unicom, announced on Tuesday that only 5,000 customers had purchased the phone thus far. At this rate, the handset may have trouble meeting sales expectations. China Unicom had pledged to sell 1 million iPhones per year.

Price could be one deterrent -- the iPhone starts at around the equivalent of USD$730. Add in monthly subscriber fees, and you're soon looking at a rather pricey phone in a country where the average income of urban workers in 2008 was less than $4,300.

Another problem could be the wide choice of devices available to the Chinese consumer. In addition to cheaper gray-market iPhone sales -- which Kevin Wang, director of China research at iSuppli, had pegged at about 1 million units per year -- the iPhone has to contend with a number of competitors. These range from Nokia phones, which dominate the market, to iPhone knockoffs to Android phones.

"It's most likely a combination of all these factors," Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech, told MacNewsWorld. However, he's optimistic that things will pick up for the iPhone. "Over time, I think the iPhone scales nicely in China," Marshall said. "I think China Unicom's figure of 1 million iPhone sales a year is conservative."

Still, Apple may need to do something about price. It had a similar experience with the iPhone in India, according to BusinessWeek. The iPhone was launched in India in August of 2008, and by April 2009, total sales were reportedly less than 20,000. As is possibly the case in China, price and competition from an entrenched market leader -- Nokia again -- are making things difficult for the iPhone in India.

Taking care of business

On the enterprise front, the iPhone seems to be making some headway.

For one thing, Medallia, which helps companies track interactions with customers in near real-time, has announced an iPhone app for what it calls "enterprise feedback management". This lets users access, monitor and respond in real-time to customer feedback across all channels, including social media.

"More and more of our customers' employees are using the iPhone at work," Amy Pressman, Medallia's president and chief financial officer, told MacNewsWorld. These users range from vice presidents to managers of individual hotels and retail stores to front line staff.

Medallia's announcement follows in the footsteps of IBM. In October, Big Blue announced that Lotus Domino 8.5.1 would natively support the iPhone.

With more than 100,000 apps now in the app store, why are these apps important to investors? Because these are meat-and-potatoes apps that will be heavily used for business-critical purposes, and their use may spur more iPhone sales.

Also, the iTunes App Store and the iPhone will gain credibility as more enterprises pick up iPhone apps, opening up another new market for Apple. "We have found that our iPhone-using enterprise customers are more interested in applications beyond email than our customers who use other smartphones," Pressman said.

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Killing off Kindle?

Meanwhile, as has been widely expected, more and more iPhone owners are using the devices as e-readers, according to research by Flurry. Flurry offers analytics, deployment and monetization tools for mobile app developers.

In September, apps categorized as "books" on the App Store outnumbered those designated as "games" for the first time, Flurry found. In October, one out of every five new iPhone apps launched was a book. Flurry's survey sampled more than 2,500 apps, 40 million consumers and four platforms -- the iPhone and the iPod touch, the BlackBerry platform, JavaME, and Android.

Whether or not sales of Amazon's Kindle e-reader will be affected by people using the iPhone as an e-reader has yet to be seen. However, with Amazon stating that holiday sales of the Kindle might set new records, it could be that the iPhone might ride another new wave of demand and see a further boost in sales.

Apple will remain strong, said Broadpoint AmTech's Marshall. He's sticking with his price target of $235 a share.

Originally published on MacNewsWorld

Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones

Jacqueline Emigh — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:07:17 -0500

By Jacqueline Emigh, Betanews

In New York City today, Verizon Wireless rolled out new additions to its expanding Android and LG Chocolate phone families, while also delivering sneak previews of a new, consumer-friendly ruggedized phone called the Casio G'zOne Brigade (shown above).

Like its previously announced top-of-the-line Android phone, known simply as the Droid, the less expensive Droid Eris will be available for the first time in Verizon stores tomorrow -- which is also when pricing will be revealed.

Verizon hasn't yet set pricing or an availability date for the Brigade, but sales of the Push to Talk phone from Casio will start some time over the next few weeks, said Kris Dunlap, Verizon's Push to Talk product manager, during a demo at a press event in Manhattan.

In keeping with its lower price point, the Droid Eris has a lower resolution HVGA display in comparison to the Droid's WVGA screen, and a slower processor running at 528 MHz.

More significantly, the Eris currently runs Android 1.5, in comparison to the higher-end phone's GPS-enabled Android 2.0. That means it won't be able to handle Google's turn-by-turn voice navigation until a 2.0 upgrade becomes available for the phone, officials said at the event.

Both Verizon Android phones, though, will come with the same Google applications suite and Verizon's Visual Voicemail, and both will allow downloads from the 10,000+ applications in Google's online App store.

Unlike the Droid, which is made by Motorola, the Droid Eris is manufactured by HTC. The Eris is similar in form factor to HTC's Hero, a phone offered by Sprint, but it's slightly thinner.

In another demo at the event, Lauren Southwick, a Verizon marketing manager, showed an app called Join the Band running on the Chocolate Touch. Verizon's new touch-enabled Chocolate phone is strongly focused on music playback, with features that include an FM tuner, the ability to sync music from the phone to a PC, and a music player for MP3, WMA, and unprotected AAC and AAC+, for example. You can use a special button on the phone to upload photos taken with a built-in 3.2 megapixel camera to social networking sites like Facebook.

In Join the Band, you can play along with any song you choose on a virtual drum set or piano keyboard. I thought the piano did a fine job when I banged out "Chopsticks" on it.

The Chocolate Touch's video-capable camera can take four types of shots: Normal, Panorama, Intelligent, and Facial Makeover. Southwick sent a Panorama shot she took at the event to one of my e-mail addresses.

Verizon's upcoming Brigade, on the other hand, is the third in a series of ruggedized and water-resistant phones targeted not just at people who work out-of-doors, but at those who like to bike, camp out, fish, and do other outdoor hobbies in their spare time. Like the other two recent tough phones, it meets 810F military specifications for conditions such as vibration, humidity, fog, and low and high temperature storage, Dunlap said.

Verizon hasn't readied a spec sheet yet on the Brigade. But the new horizontal clamshell device -- which will be available to all Verizon Wireless users, not just Push to Talk customers -- will be the first ruggedized phone from Verizon to come with a hard QWERTY keyboard.

Dunlap also pointed to its large display, estimating that the Brigade's screen is about the same size as that of Verizon's Voyager. The Brigade will come with a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, video capture, and LED light.

The Chocolate Touch and Brigade phones also support Verizon's V Cast video and music services and VZ Navigator turn-by-turn navigation, while the two Droid phones from Verizon do not. Chocolate Touch will be available from VZW starting tomorrow for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.

How RIM can avoid a premature endgame for BlackBerry

Carmi Levy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:23:41 -0500

By Carmi Levy, Betanews

Once not so long ago, if you wanted bulletproof e-mail on a mobile device, you bought a BlackBerry. Research In Motion, the company that practically defined wireless messaging a decade ago, has done quite nicely for itself since then, garnering over 56% of the market for smartphones in the US and about 20% of the overall wireless handset market that includes smartphones as well as conventional feature phones. Its end-to-end encryption and still-unique service paradigm that routes messaging traffic through secure Network Operations Centers further endeared the platform to enterprise buyers, even as the company was successfully pushing the franchise into the consumer space.

Unfortunately for RIM, nothing stays the same in the increasingly competitive wireless market. The BlackBerry is no longer a market of one, and many of the features that defined the platform -- including push e-mail and enterprise-class security -- are no longer unique. Worse, the critical feature set for a modern smartphone has expanded to include rich Web access, broad application availability, and an integrated, Web services-aware operating system. It's no secret that the BlackBerry platform lags in all of these areas with its fine-for-the-1990s browser, relatively paltry app ecosystem, and an OS that despite regular incremental updates still betrays its decade-old roots.

As investors push RIM's share price down, and the drumbeats grow louder to aggressively address these shortcomings, the company finds itself at a crossroads. Either it radically changes the strategy that's driven its growth to-date or it risks becoming an also-ran in the US market. Nokia, whose devices once accounted for over 35% of all US sales, lost the script when it misread Americans' growing taste for affordable, feature-packed, and well-integrated smartphones. Today it's American market share languishes at barely 7%.

It's a lesson that RIM would do well to learn, because at this critical inflection point in its history, a stay-the-course mentality could doom RIM to a Nokia-like fate.

To maintain leadership in a market that grows more competitive by the day thanks to continued strength from Apple's iPhone and a rapidly building frontal assault by Google's Android, RIM needs to focus on some fundamental changes, including:

Simplify the product lineup. The almost overflowing BlackBerry product tree stands in stark contrast to the singular focus of Apple's iPhone hardware. RIM sells dozens of devices through countless carriers, often so subtly differentiated that even hard-core fans can't keep track. Sure, most BlackBerry aficionados know that a device number that ends in 30 has built-in GPS, while one that ends in 20 includes Wi-Fi. But the finely sliced marketing messages demanded by such a broad product line tend to dilute the branding effort. As beneficial as multiple devices and form factors have been in terms of appealing to consumers (and carriers) with different needs, they've also dimmed how the BlackBerry is perceived in the minds of potential buyers.
Get serious about courting developers. Application developers care about two things: development effort and profit potential. As it stands now, RIM loses on both fronts. The tools to develop software on the BlackBerry platform are too cumbersome to use, which extends development time and effort. And since the BlackBerry app market itself is just a fraction of the size of its major rivals, there's less opportunity to drive revenue. Compared to iPhone and, increasingly, Android (which already has well over 10,000 apps to RIM's 3,000 or so) it's a no-brainer: BlackBerry development loses every time. RIM has had ample time to bring a streamlined SDK to market along with easily accessible training and support resources for developers. It's also had lots of time to go for Apple's jugular and point-for-point pick off the things about iPhone development that tick developers off (I'm looking at you, opaque approval process). And to be fair, it's making progress. Just not as fast as it should.
Fix the browser. You can't write a product review of any BlackBerry without calling out its lame browser. While competitors have moved on to multitouch-capable interfaces that closely mimic the conventional desktop Web, RIM's offering hasn't changed much since it was first introduced. The result is a stripped down, slow, often frustrating online experience. In fairness to RIM, it's doing something about it. This summer, it acquired Torch Mobile, which makes the WebKit-based multiplatform Iris browser -- a deal that's expected to bring a new standard browser to the BlackBerry sometime in 2010. It can't come a moment too soon.
Find a new differentiator. Rock solid, enterprise-class, push-based e-mail is yesterday's news. And even if it wasn't, consumers don't much care about it anyway. Apple's got the application ecosystem to end all application ecosystems. Google has tight Web services integration. Palm has an innovative UI that blurs the line between local apps and the cloud. What's RIM's unique story going to be? The company isn't saying, but unless it comes up with something to differentiate itself, its good-enough strategy that matches competitors feature for feature will guarantee a long, less-than-comfortable decline as newer, more unique solutions hit the market. Motorola's Droid may hold some lessons here, as it illustrates how a hardware vendor can come back from the dead with an offering that moves the mobility bar solidly beyond basic e-mail and Web browsing.
Learn from the Storm. RIM's first touchscreen device, rushed to market to capture holiday shoppers' interest, was by all accounts a botch. Yes, it ultimately sold well, but its rocky launch tarnished the formerly invincible brand and illustrated the perils of timing product releases to unrealistic seasonal buying patterns. If the engineering isn't fully baked, no product should ever see the light of day. Similarly, devices without Wi-Fi have no place in today's market. While RIM avoided ticking Verizon off by deleting the feature from the first generation Storm, it alienated consumers who simply expect this in anything they buy today. RIM repeated the no-Wi-Fi mistake with the Tour, and one hopes it won't happen again.

While the BlackBerry franchise doesn't face an immediate risk of extinction, its long-term success -- and the success of the company that spawned it -- could be compromised...unless RIM drops the overly conservative mentality, and starts swinging for the fences. Nothing short of a radical re-think will keep the BlackBerry as dominant in the future as it has been in the recent past.

Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.

The new face of Android: No face

Tim Conneally — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:03:34 -0500

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Early this morning, Sony Ericsson took the wraps off of its first Android-based handset, the 1 GHz Snapdragon-powered Xperia X10. With a huge 4" touchscreen, an 8.1 megapixel camera and the elegant custom user interface named "Rachael," Sony Ericsson moves the Android platform a step further by giving it almost no mention in announcements and commercials.

Sony Ericsson mentions the Android Market, and notes in the spec sheet that the operating system is Android Donut 1.6, but otherwise it does not ride the point, and strives to make the device stand out as a distinct product.

This is where Android is headed, and it's a good thing.

As anyone with a zealous interest in technology is sure to tell you, most people don't give a damn what version of which operating system their phone is running. They only care if it works and their signals are strong. So rather than try to start an "I'm an Android / I'm an iPhone" battle like Verizon did with its Motorola Droid "iDon't" advertising campaign, Sony Ericsson avoids even mentioning Android and the X10 in the same breath.

Instead, it gives its custom Android build its own name (UX Platform "built on top of the Open OS") and talks about the uniquely Sony Ericsson experience it can provide with it.

It's owning the Android experience, and in doing so, it's giving the user less to think about and more to drool over.

Like Motorola did with MotoBLUR, Sony Ericsson has developed a new face for its Android devices which attempts to closely integrate the user's mobile device with his various social networks and media sharing sites. Sony Ericsson calls the two applications Timescape and Mediascape, and we first had a glimpse of them back in January when a video runthrough of Rachael leaked. Timescape takes all communications with another person -- be they through SMS, voice calls, e-mails, IMs, or social network wall postings -- and ties them with that person's contact information in your phone. If you hit the "infinite" button, you can pull up a chronological view of a contact's online activity, something like an in-phone Friendfeed.

Mediascape is a highly visual media manager which integrates content stored on the phone with content on media Web sites. If you are listening to music, for example, pressing the "Infinite" button here would pull up relevant and related online content such as artist information, videos, downloads, and so forth.

As Sony Ericsson's Head of Application Planning, Erika Kato Marcus, said in the joint venture's new blog, "It's about quick access to your music, videos and photos in one application...What we try to do...is to blur the boundaries between what is online and local."

One of the few areas where the X10 is similar to other Android devices is in application acquisition, as its primary app store is the Android Market. However, Sony Ericsson has put its stamp here as well, and includes PlayNow Arena into the mix for additional games, applications, themes, wallpaper, ringtones, and music.

Like the company's whole Xperia line, the X10 is a luxurious device. It has a 4" (480 x 854) scratch resistant capacitive touchscreen, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD8250) processor, 1 GB of onboard memory with 8 GB microSD included, quad-band GSM, UMTS, and HSPA 900/1700/2100, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, and A-GPS. The camera is 8.1 megapixel with 16x digital zoom, geotagging and face recognition of up to five faces simultaneously.

Though the public's attention has been captured by the Motorola Droid and its aggressive advertising campaign, it's a move like this which makes big strides toward Android ubiquity.

With beefed up 3G, more networks to get 'Droid'

Tim Conneally — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:46:27 -0500

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Here in the US, excitement has been high over Verizon's first Android handset, the Motorola Droid; so high, in fact, that it has actually begun to make an appreciable dent in iPhone favoritism.

This is partially due to the fact that a large number of iPhone users were Verizon customers before they got the iPhone, and still consider Verizon's wireless network to be superior to AT&T's. Verizon's "There's a map for that" advertising campaign has also added to the company's reputation for having a more robust network than AT&T.

Verizon seems to be welcoming huge consumers of mobile bandwidth with the Droid.

Now the Droid has been spotted in Germany, equipped with UMTS/GSM radios under the name Motorola Milestone on Telefonica's O2 network.

Germany's O2 network is not viewed nearly as favorably as Verizon is here in the United States; it's actually the nation's fourth largest mobile carrier behind T-Mobile, Vodafone, and KPN's E-Plus. However, the carrier has made some serious strides toward becoming a bigger competitor in the market.

Part of this is by similarly preparing for higher mobile data traffic.

In late September, O2 completed the "largest ever live network upgrade in Germany," by adding 5,199 new dual-mode 2G/3G base stations to help carry more data traffic.

The new base stations all came from Chinese wireless manufacturer Huawei Technologies, and Walter Haas, CTO Huawei Germany said, "Our advanced SingleRAN solution enables the operator to simplify the radio access network unifying both GSM and UMTS functionalities. This state-of-the-art network will be significantly enhanced in coverage quality and able to meet the operator' s demands for increased data traffic."

O2's most recent string of network upgrades started at the beginning of 2009, when the company predicted that its subscribers would consume triple the amount of mobile broadband bandwidth they did in 2008.

Sprint and Clearwire's 2009 WiMAX rollout almost complete

Tim Conneally — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:17:04 -0500

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Clearwire and Sprint have been working hard to complete the planned WiMAX network deployment for 2009, and with the addition of a handful of new major markets this week, the project has nearly fulfilled its promises for the year.

Today, Sprint announced it has launched WiMAX services in the North Carolina cities Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point and Cary; in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; and in Chicago, Illinois.

Todd Rowley, Vice President of Sprint 4G said, "Our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G will include many new devices and capabilities that create increased performance and productivity while enhancing personal lifestyles on the go."

This statement of course was not a recent one, and was also used last week when the long-anticipated 4G network in Philadelphia was launched.

The final cities Iexpected to get Sprint/Clearwire WiMAX networks this year are Seattle/Tacoma Washington, and Honolulu/Maui Hawaii. By the end of 2010, more than 80 networks are expected nationwide including New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Houston, and the District of Columbia.

With this latest expansion, WiMAX services from either Clear, Sprint 4G, Comcast, or Time Warner (all investors in the Clear WiMAX network) are available in:

Oregon --- Portland, Salem
Georgia --- Atlanta, Milledgeville
Nevada --- Las Vegas
Illinois --- Chicago
California --- San Francisco bay area (not yet public)
Pennsylvania --- Philadelphia
Maryland --- Baltimore
Texas ---- Dallas, Fort Worth, Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Killeen/Temple, Waco, Wichita Falls
North Carolina ---- Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, Cary
Idaho ---- Boise
Washington --- Bellingham

Nokia's N-Gage can't survive against iPhone, will be shut down

Tim Conneally — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:36:24 -0400

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

According to Reuters today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia will reportedly be shutting down its N-Gage gaming service. The shutdown will come six years after the mobile phone and gaming system hybrid concept debuted and was quickly retired; and nearly four years after it was re-invented as a part of Nokia's smartphone ecosystem, and later integrated with the Ovi platform.

Nokia intends to stop publishing new N-Gage titles and eventually wind down the service by the end of next year. Games will still be a major part of the Ovi platform, available in the Ovi Store under store.ovi.com/games, but the dedicated N-Gage brand is finally being scuttled.

In the N-Gage blog today, the Nokia Games Team tried to explain the reasoning behind the service's closure.

"As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, we want to offer one store front with an even broader portfolio of games -- games for everyone. It's much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content," today's blog entry said.

The problem was that the re-designed N-Gage was marketed as a niche product to serious gamers who owned Symbian S60 devices. But after the early failures of the platform (namely its high cost, weak game support, and poorly designed "game deck") the product had little or no appeal to the very niche it was trying to serve.

This failure, coupled with the app store gold rush occurring on all the major smartphone platforms, especially iPhone and iPod Touch, could help de-fragment Nokia's games offerings and help reach a wider audience.

The only thing that is truly going to suffer from this change is the community element associated with the N-Gage Arena, which lets users post high scores, write reviews, and manage their games. After the N-Gage shutdown, games will continue to work, but all the community features in the games will stop functioning after 2010.

Sprint quietly locks down Xohm WiMAX network while it awaits Clear takeover

Tim Conneally — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:12:12 -0400

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Without any notice to current customers with or those early adopters with dormant accounts, Sprint has locked down the Baltimore Xohm WiMAX network and is not letting inactive hardware be turned back on to allow free upgrades to Clear hardware.

Sprint's Xohm network was one of the first two WiMAX deployments in the United States. We watched with excitement as the towers were raised in Baltimore and the ceremonial ribbon was cut on the new high speed wireless network.

But not three months after Xohm debuted, Sprint and Clearwire agreed to merge their 4G wireless assets under the brand name "Clear," and the fate of the Xohm brand was sealed.

Since that time, Clearwire has rolled out new WiMAX networks in 14 markets, has made plans for networks in as many as 80 cities, while the lone Xohm network sat in wait for Clear to come in and take over.

It now appears that time is approaching, and Sprint has all but shut down its Xohm operations with no attempt to communicate this fact with early subscribers.

The activation of new accounts on the Xohm network was frozen four days ago. When you log into xohm.com, you get forwarded to the customer page, and if you click the "learn more" link, you're redirected back. All sales information has been removed, and when you try to click "about us" or "contact us," you're linked to a beta.xohm.com URL that is password protected.

If you log into the site with a user account, it still says "Do you have a XOHM device but no XOHM Service? If so, click on the 'Buy a New XOHM Service' button so we can activate your device and get you the service you need to start using the XOHM network."

But there is no button.

When Rob Wray of mp3car.com tried to re-activate some extra Xohm equipment on his currently active account, customer service representatives and managers refused to do so, and instead suggest he return the hardware to the vendors.

So customers who let their accounts lapse due to the uncertain future of the network or those who had an allotment of extra equipment for workforce deployments are out of luck with no sympathy from Sprint.

This is because new equipment will be required when Clear takes over the Xohm network at the beginning of 2010, and only customers with active equipment will be eligible for a free hardware upgrades.

Xohm equipment "might be compatible with the new Clearwire network...but probably not."

Non-exclusive iPhones: Has Verizon waited too long?

Carmi Levy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:08:01 -0400

By Carmi Levy, Betanews

I've never been a fan of exclusive deals between handset manufacturers and wireless carriers. I understand why they appeal to the Apples and the AT&Ts of the world in the first place, but it ticks me off that sweet deals like this always seem to leave consumers out in the cold. They limit choice and competition, which tends to keep prices artificially high for longer than they should, and they make it easier for carriers to maintain the kind of old, customer-unfriendly practices that have long stained the industry.

When a given gotta-have-it device is available only through one carrier, consumers are forced to make a Hobson's Choice in that they can choose by device, or by carrier, but not both. And if they dislike the exclusive carrier for any reason, they either hold their noses and sign, or learn to live with another carrier's second-rate hardware.

Either way, it's not exactly democracy in action, and it often results in less than optimal experiences for consumers. We all deserve better.

Change already happened

So it's with more than a little eagerness that I watch rumors of Verizon potentially adding the iPhone to its portfolio around the second half of 2010. While the cynic in me thinks the company's still smarting from its stupid-in-hindsight decision to spurn Apple a couple of years back -- a decision which resulted in AT&T becoming the exclusive launch carrier in the US -- the realist in me says Verizon has better things to do than lick old wounds.

First, disclosure: My fellow Canadians and I are no strangers to iPhone exclusivity. Rogers Wireless has been the sole carrier of the device since its debut here just over a year ago (please don't get me started on why we were iPhone-less until 2008). Canadian exclusivity is about to end as both Bell and Telus are scheduled to start selling iPhones here next month.

I hardly think we're alone, either. From where I sit, it's only a matter of time before exclusivity ends in every market Apple is in, as the company shifts toward a cross-carrier model more like Research in Motion's. Although different carriers obviously carry different BlackBerry models, you've still got a certain degree of choice no matter whose store you walk into, or who's sending you a bill every month.

As encouraged as I am to see Verizon potentially getting into the iPhone game, I'm left wondering if its timing is all that great. After all, the wireless market in the second half of 2010 will look radically different than the wireless market of today. Google's Android mobile operating system -- at one time largely a curiosity, due to its limited availability on none-too-impressive hardware -- is about to bust open big time thanks to high-profile hardware releases from a number of vendors, including Samsung, former Microsoft Windows Mobile stalwart HTC, and a possibly resurgent Motorola.

Within a year, Google's services-rich strategy could fundamentally alter the power balance in the wireless device/application market, and erode the iPhone-vs.-everyone else halo that Apple currently enjoys. That's because while Android's 10,000 titles can't match Apple's App Store dominance, its tightly integrated Web services give it enough room to make an end run around the iPhone, and seriously erode the optimistic sales and revenue figures being floated around a possible Verizon iPhone play. When you've got Web services, you don't always need "an app for that."

The latest rumors, based on a Broadpoint.AmTech report cited by AppleInsider, state that VZW could get away with putting up a $300 subsidy per unit for late 2010-model iPhones, if it (easily) sells 14 million of them the following year. While batting numbers like these around is risky business (risky if you like being right, which it seems fewer people do nowadays), you might still get at least a baseline understanding of why Verizon might think it could pull this off.

The time-eroding value of money

But would Verizon be able to make as much money off of iPhone subscribers as AT&T has managed? Can anyone be just as profitable selling a device in Year Four of its lifecycle, as simply one of potentially many carriers? After all, there's no guarantee that Apple isn't also going to offer its devices to other carriers by the second half of 2010, so maybe Verizon should push for a smaller subsidy to limit its exposure. Or perhaps Verizon should push Apple to source only the latest generation (4G?) iPhone instead of the 3G S, or whatever passes for current-generation at that time. And if Android takes root and closes the feature/app gap, should Verizon push for an even sweeter deal? Or simply walk away?

However it plays out, it's becoming increasingly clear that any delay is bad for everyone:

Bad for Apple because it keeps an artificial upper limit on market share growth. Worse, because it pushes broader iPhone availability so far out that by then, it'll be competing against itself with the tablet..or whatever that next "One More Thing" turns out to be. Apple's overall product roadmap means iPhone's window as a profit-rich halo device could close before Verizon even gets in the game.
Bad for Verizon because it needs to build out a robust offering of leading edge smartphones to maintain its shrinking market share advantage. Android-based devices will help, but iPhone would push Verizon over the top headline-wise. Assuming it happens sooner rather than later, of course.
Bad for consumers because they shouldn't have to wait years for wider carrier availability, and the positive effect on rates and plans that competition of this sort inevitably brings.

None of this would matter if the iPhone were a middling piece of mobile hardware with a barely active application store and moribund developer community. If we all coveted other devices (and if the iPhone wasn't so culturally, if not numerically, dominant), we'd yawn at the prospect of any carrier, much less Verizon, adding a new device to its portfolio.

But the iPhone is none of those things, and consumers deserve to have the choice earlier in the product life cycle. That they may be forced to wait until the second half of next year is further evidence that carrier-exclusive deals make no sense in today's fast-changing mobile market. It's time for them to disappear for good.

Verizon's Droid claims 10,000 apps, graphics co-processor, and 'a map for that'

Jacqueline Emigh — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:18:03 -0400

By Jacqueline Emigh, Betanews

At a sneak preview in New York City on Thursday night, execs from Verizon Wireless, Motorola, and Google gave reporters from Betanews and elsewhere a point-by-point illustration, supported by a few of Android's 10,000-plus apps. They also showed off some features not even mentioned in Verizon's anti-iPhone marketing blitz: a stellar 3.7-inch high res display, turn-by-turn GPS voice navigation with Google Latitude and Street Views, and innovative peripherals like a car mount and multimedia station.

In a scathing new ad campaign, Verizon takes aim at everything Apple's rival iPhone doesn't do. "iDon't have a real keyboard," according to an ad. "iDon't run simultaneous apps," and so on, and so forth.

But as they say, seeing is sometimes believing. As I witnessed during demos on Wednesday, Droid does have a "real" slideout keyboard, although some have criticized it as kind of cramped.

"At 13.7 millimeters, this is the thinnest slider QWERTY around," said Juan Ignacio Sarmiento, a Motorola marketing evec, as he pulled the slider out from the Droid during the demo.

Also aboard the Droid are two software QWERTY keyboards -- one in horizontal (landscape mode) orientation, and the other in vertical (portrait mode).

As advertised, too, the Droid runs multiple apps simultaneously -- a feat achieved, of course, through Android multitasking capabilities. Essentially, you don't need to close out of one app before launching another app, something the iPhone still forces you to do.

In fact, Android is gaining ground fast against Apple's App Store for iPhones, with more than 10,000 applications already online in the Android Market, Sarmiento contended.

I haven't even come close to viewing all of those thousands of Android apps, so it's unclear to me how well all of them will work on the Droid. But also during the meeting, Verizon's Menniti told me that he expects a lot more apps for the Droid to spring from Google's just released SDK 2.0.

Other claims from Verizon also ring true. The Linux-based Android environment supports open development. Some of these apps -- such as a calculator, for example -- are widgets. The Droid's batteries are indeed interchangeable.

I haven't had a chance yet to try out for Droid's 5-megapixel autofocus camera to take night-time photos (another advertising assertion). But Menniti shot some pics successfully in a dimly light corner of the demo room.

Sarmiento attributed the Droid's night-time photo abilities to a dual LED flash, along with work the Droid partners have done around photo issues like color resolution and white balance.

And yes, the Droid is definitely customizable -- and then some. The choice of three different QWERTY keyboards is a help here, and so are the 10,000+ apps and Droid-specific peripherals.

The Droid's high-res display -- specifically, it offers 480x854 WVGA resolution -- is another stunner. With resolution that high, you can view most Web pages at full size, according to Menniti.

To accommodate this high-res screen in a 4.56-by-2.36-inch gizmo, Motorola's engineers might possibly have made some trade-offs in overall processing speed. The Droid's main processor runs at 550 MHz, rather than at the higher rates possible with a heftier chip. But the main processor is also accompanied by a separate on-board graphics chip. And all of the apps I saw operating on Wednesday seemed to be running quite fast enough.

All of the Droid's rich functionality is accessible just by touch, without the need for a stylus. By comparison, Microsoft's Windows Mobile is just starting to reach that goal in its own new version 6.5.

Also in the plus column is the Droid's very broad 3G reach. On maps supplied by Verizon Wireless, you can graphically compare Verizon's huge US coverage area to the much scantier areas served by T-Mobile, Sprint, and even AT&T -- whose 3G network is used by Apple's iPhone in the US.

Sitting in its pint-sized multimedia station, while running clock and radio apps, the Droid becomes a digital alarm clock. Pop the Droid into its car mount, and the gizmo turns into a voice-capable on-board GPS system.

Although earlier Android phones have run Googe Maps, the Droid is the first to integrate turn-by-turn navigation, said Google's Michael Siliski, during another demo. This integration also includes Google Latitude and Street Views. According to Siliski, you don't even need to give a street address to get turn-by-turn instructions for driving to a restaurant, for instance.

Siliski told me that it's way too early to tell whether Google will ever market its GPS navigation outside the US.

"We're still in beta with this," he noted. Yet the Droid's just announced Google Maps Navigation is due to leave test mode when the phone ships on November 6.

Motorola and Verizon unveil the Droid, Google Maps navigation

Tim Conneally — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:47 -0400

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

After a long period of rumors, leaks and teaser marketing campaigns, Verizon and Motorola have officially announced Droid, Verizon's first Android smartphone, and the first Android device running Eclair. It will be available on Friday, November 6, for $199 with a two year contract and mail-in rebate.

Motorola's Contribution:

In addition to pricing and availability, the complete list of specs that was leaked a bit early (and subsequently yanked) has been published by Motorola. It can now officially be said that Droid is nearly identical in size to the iPhone 3G S, with a screen 0.2" larger, and a body only 0.02" thicker despite having a full QWERTY keyboard.

The slim Droid has a 3.7" (480x854) WVGA capacitive touchscreen, and includes a 16 GB memory card which can be replaced by microSD cards up to 32 GB. Today's announcement unfortunately does not include processor speed (listed as 550 MHz in leaks) or clarify whether it includes a discrete graphics chip as many had speculated.

What it does include is EV-DO rev. A 3G, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED Flash and digital image stabilization and DVD-quality video recording, aGPS and standalone GPS, a 3-axis accelerometer, and 6.4 hours of talk time or 11.25 days of standby.

Google's Contribution:

With yesterday's launch of Eclair in the Android SDK, we got to see a number of the new APIs made available to developers in addition to some interface and support improvements that Droid will offer, such as HTML5 and Flash 10.

But we kept seeing "navigation by Google Maps" in early Droid announcements, with little information as to what this represented. Today we've found out that Droid will launch with free navigation from the new Google Maps for Android 2.0 beta. It combines "plain English" voice command, turn-by-turn directions and its unique Street View perspective which is unlike any other GPS device currently available.

Verizon's Conribution

In addition to providing the 3G Network infrastructure that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is so fond of, Verizon is equipping the Droid with Verizon Visual Voice Mail. When T-Mobile launched the G1, visual voicemail was not an option until third parties such as YouMail and Phonefusion made apps providing the functionality. It was not until considerably later that T-Mobile Visual Voicemail was an option presented to Android early adopters.

Droid will be available exclusively at Verizon Wireless stores and through Verizon's Web store on Friday, November 6.