Category: Mobile Tech

AT&T Threatens Legal Action Against For Emailing Its CEO

Don’t email AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. Apparently he doesn’t like it. AT&T customer Giorgio Galante emailed Stephenson to complain about the company’s new data plans. He received a voicemail from AT&T’s executive response team thanking him for his feedback…and threatening to issue a cease-and-desist order if he continued to email Stephenson. That’s just awesome.

Considering that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is emailing the world from his iPad these days, the response from Stephenson’s team is especially amusing. Hell, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has a fake email set up for customers to contact him (and be answered by someone from “his team”).

Perhaps Stephenson is too traditional to be a hip CEO like Jobs. Perhaps he’s used to the wire-line world that he entered in 1982 with Southwestern Bell. Or maybe he’s just a prick. *shrug* On a side note, Galante is leaving AT&T for Sprint and the excellent HTC Evo 4G.

Source via Engadget

HTC Evo 4G (Not) Review Part 6: The Conclusion

After nearly two weeks with the HTC Evo 4G, I’m ready to give my closing thoughts, recommendations, and all that good stuff. I enjoyed the process of using the phone and updating my (not a) review on a rolling basis. To me, it was much more useful and accurate than reviews that were based on using the phone for two days. If you don’t have the patience to read the whole thing, I’ll just say that the HTC Evo 4G is the best Android phone out there today. Now, let’s kick off the final chapter in this (not a) review with a binary list of what I liked and didn’t like about the Evo 4G.

What I Liked

  • The Screen: Saying I like the screen is actually an understatement. I frickin’ love it! While I would have preferred an OLED screen, the TFT LCD screen on the Evo 4G produces images that are bright and clear enough. That aside, it’s just fantastic using a 4.3-inch screen. It makes viewing web sites, videos, and photos a better experience. It makes using a virtual keyboard easier. After you’ve used a phone with a display this large, it’ll be tough going back to the 3.5-inch and 3.7-inch displays that are more common.
  • The Camera: This was a pleasant surprise since I had low expectations due to HTC’s history. It’s not the best camera out there, but it’s very good.
  • HTC Sense: Although Android has been getting friendlier with each update, HTC Sense adds a bit more polish to the experience. Some people prefer the stock Android feel and customization, but I think more people will like the little touches Sense adds.
  • Kickstand: I love this thing more than I ought to. I just find it incredibly useful.
  • Android: It’s a fantastic operating system. It’s tight integration with other Google products is perfect for me.

What I Didn’t Like

  • Battery Life: I’ve been averaging 12 hours out of the Evo 4G’s battery. My use has been pretty moderate (for a tech nerd) and I know that I’ll be in situations where I’ll be using the phone a lot more. I will absolutely need an extra battery for a situation like E3 2010. That said, this is what I expected from a phone with a large screen and a fast processor, but just because I expected it doesn’t mean that I like it.
  • Button Layout: The other Android phones I’ve used had a trackball or optical sensor at the bottom of the phone. I’ve always thought that they were kind of stupid on a touchscreen device, but I see one area where they come in handy: creating space. The Evo 4G’s four function buttons are really close to its bottom edge. When I use the phone in landscape mode, I will inevitably hit the search button by accident. This happened a lot when I first started using and while it happens much less these days, I’m pretty sure that it will always be an issue for me. It’s just annoying.
  • HTC Sense: The bad thing about HTC Sense — and really, any customized version of Android — is that updates take longer. Android 2.2 (FroYo) has started rolling out to select HTC Nexus One phones and should be available to all N1 users by the end of the month. As fantastic as the Evo 4G is, it would be an absolute beast with the performance gains found in FroYo. HTC has promised that the Evo 4G will be getting 2.2 in 2010, but who knows what month the update will hit.
  • The $10 Solution: No, I’m not talking about EA’s Online Pass, but rather Sprint’s $10 premium data surcharge for the Evo 4G. Some writers have reported that this is for 4G access, whether it’s in your area or not. That’s incorrect. According to Sprint it’s for the “richer data experience” the phone offers. It’s a bullsh*t explanation, but the way I see it, Sprint is punishing its customers for using a great phone. The one saving grace is that Sprint’s prices are very good to begin with. Even with the $10 fee, an individual Sprint plan is almost always cheaper than what AT&T and Verizon offer. Still, the $10 fee is kind of crap (though it seems benevolent compared to the garbage AT&T is pulling).

Recommendation

Like I said at the top, the HTC Evo 4G is the best Android handset out there today. I highly recommend it as long as you’re cool with picking up an extra battery or are usually near a power outlet. The screen size, form factor, and camera combined with a polished Android experience make it absolutely fabulous. As long as Sprint coverage is solid in the places you work and play, I think the Evo 4G is a fantastic purchase.

Will I Keep the Evo 4G?

To be completely honest, I’m still not sure. I’m not even halfway through my T-Mobile contract, so I’d have to pay an early termination fee to keep the Evo as my primary phone. It’s very tempting though. The decision would be a little easier and the $10 premium charge would be easier to stomach if 4G were available in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sprint claims that it’ll hit both cities in 2010, but the exact date hasn’t been stated. It’s a brilliant phone and Sprint 3G service is very strong in Los Angeles, but it’ll be costly to switch. It’s very, very, very tempting. Perhaps I’ll make up my mind in two more weeks when my month of free service is up. Let’s see how the HTC Evo 4G survives E3 2010!

Does Steve Jobs Understand the Gaming Market?

I discussed this with a few of you last night, but I’m pretty sure Steve Jobs is pretty misinformed about the gaming market. This is disappointing to me personally because he’s one of the most fascinating people on the planet and second to Muhammad Ali on my “people I’d love to have dinner with” list. Considering how much money the iPad, iPod, and iPhone are making with games, you’d think he’d understand the market better. Last night at D8 he said (via Engadget):

Clearly iPhone plus iPod Touch have created a new class of gaming. It’s a subset of casual gaming, but it’s surprising how good some of them are. They’re almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics. Console games the software is $30 or $40 a game. It’s cheaper on iPhone, so the market has exploded.

I love me some iPhone games, but I’ve yet to see one that was “almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics”. I’ve also yet to see new home-console games that cost $30 to $40. Now, there are a few ways to write this off. You can say that he was speaking specifically about handheld consoles. Apple has always been weak with gaming, so perhaps this is something Jobs has never cared to understand on a deep level. As for the price difference, I suppose it’s easy to be $20 to $30 off when you’re a billionaire. At the end of the day I just get the sense that he doesn’t really know gaming or care to know it.

Some of you have already given me your opinions on the matter, but I want to hear from more of you. Does Steve Jobs know what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to games?

AT&T Introduces New Data Plans: Users Limited, Content Screwed

AT&T has announced new data plans for all of its smartphones and the Apple iPad. The $15 DataPlus plan includes 200MB of data, while the $25 DataPro plan includes 2GB. Additional data for the latter plan will be metered at a cost of $10 per GB. Tethering is also available for a $20 fee and requires the DataPro plan. Customers that are currently enjoying the $29.99 unlimited data plan on the iPad will be able to keep that rate.

While AT&T claims that 98 percent of its customers use 2GB of data per month or less, this practice will clearly make the company a lot of money. Content is getting more complex — look at Wired’s excellent iPad magazine or Netflix, for example. Richer content demands more data. Pricing schemes like this discourage users from using data-heavy entertainment. It also makes content creators worry more about file size than making something cool.

It’s no secret that the iPhone has led to a ton of network congestion and performance issues for AT&T. It has also made the company a ton of money. While AT&T claims that it is aggressively improving its network infrastructure, it seems that it’s being more aggressive with milking its customers.

Source

Coffee Talk #153: What Social Networking Service Do You Use?

I was wondering what social networking services you fine ladies and gentlemen use. Out of necessity (have to promote the site and all), I used most of what’s out there. Twitter is my favorite. Facebook can be kind of fun. LinkedIn and Plaxo are boring, but necessary for business. I’m late to the party with Foursquare, but totally love it. Not only do you get to see where your friends are hanging out and discover new venues, you also get useless points for going to places and checking in on Foursquare — it’s like Achievement Points, but for living!

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Guyism’s #7 most overrated woman, LeBron on Larry King Live, or Intelligentsia’s excellent Los Delirios Nicaragua: Finca Las Termopilas, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I was wondering what social networking services you fine ladies and gentlemen use. Out of necessity (have to promote the site and all), I use most of what’s out there. Twitter is my favorite. Facebook can be kind of fun. LinkedIn and Plaxo are boring, but necessary for business. I’m late to the party with Foursquare, but totally love it. Not only do you get to see where your friends are hanging out and discover new venues, you also get useless points for going to places and checking in on Foursquare — it’s like Achievement Points, but for living!

Please let me know what social networking service you use, which ones you love, which ones you hate, and all that good stuff.

Steve Jobs Speaking at D8 Conference

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is currently speaking at the D8 conference hosted by All Things Digital. Esteemed writers Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg are moderating. I’ll pull some choice quotes from you, courtesy of Engadget’s excellent live blog. Keep refreshing for updates (if you wish)!

On why he wrote that lengthy diatribe about Adobe Flash:

We aren’t going to make an effort to put this on our platform. We told Adobe to show us something better, and they never did. It wasn’t until we shipped the iPad that Adobe started to raise a stink about it. We were trying to have a fight, we just decided to not use one of their products. They made a big deal of it — that’s why I wrote that letter. I said enough is enough, we’re tired of these guys trashing us.

On the stolen iPhone HD prototype that ended up with Gizmodo:

The person who took the phone plugged it into his roommates computer. And this guy was trying to destroy evidence… and his roommate called the police. So this is a story that’s amazing — it’s got theft, it’s got buying stolen property, it’s got extortion, I’m sure there’s some sex in there (huge laughs)… the whole thing is very colorful. The DA is looking into it, and to my knowledge they have someone making sure they only see stuff that relates to this case. I don’t know how it will end up.

On Google suddenly becoming a competitor:

Well they decided to compete with us. We didn’t go into the search business!

On the iPhone giving more choice to consumers and taking away software control from carriers:

When you bought a phone the carrier dictated what you had on the phone. iPhone was the first phone where we said, “You worry about the network. We’ll worry about the phone.”

We found a way to sell the phone that we want to sell. We didn’t think we could do it, but we did. We’d never been in this business, and AT&T took a big leap on us, and it’s worked out really well. And we really changed the rules of the game.

On the App Store approval process:

We have a few rules: has to do what it’s advertised to do, it has to not crash, it can’t use private APIs. And those are the three biggest reasons we reject apps. But we approve 95 percent of all the apps that are submitted every week.

[I’m still wondering why Google Voice got rejected….]

It’s audience Q&A time and the questions have been boring so far. I’m going to watch NXT and check in again later.

Answering a question on gaming:

Clearly iPhone plus iPod Touch have created a new class of gaming. It’s a subset of casual gaming, but it’s surprising how good some of them are. They’re almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics. Console games the software is $30 or $40 a game. It’s cheaper on iPhone, so the market has exploded.

[Wow, Jobs has no idea what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to games.]

Source

Coffee Talk #152: Is Google Mobilizing a Fanboy Army?

At Google I/O 2010, I was fascinated by a number of comments delivered by vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra during the show’s keynote sessions. His not-subtle-at-all jabs against Apple were entertaining and a little curious. Here are two of my favorites.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Celtics vs. Lakers, Bryan Danielson taking it to The Miz and Michael Cole, or walking the bases loaded to pitch to A-Rod, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

At Google I/O 2010, I was fascinated by a number of comments delivered by vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra during the show’s keynote sessions. His not-subtle-at-all jabs against Apple were entertaining and a little curious. Here are two of my favorites.

On why Google started Android:

If we did not act, we faced a draconian future where one man, one company, one carrier was the future.

On why Android OS will support Flash in contrast to iPhone OS shunning it:

It turns out, on the Internet…people use Flash!

Although Google I/O is a developers conference, the keynotes were being covered by the press and recorded so that millions of people could watch them on YouTube. Enticing developers to create for Google platforms is certainly the primary goal, but in this day and age, keynotes have a performance element to them as well. I was wondering what Gundotra was trying to achieve.

Over the weekend I read this great article by TechCrunch’s excellent MG Siegler about Android fanboys arriving. In the tech world, you won’t find a more passionate bunch of nerds than Apple fanboys. They will rip your heart out (you know, the Internet equivalent of ripping your heart out) if you tell them that the iPhone isn’t a form of sorcery or that Steve Jobs isn’t God’s other son. No group of fanboys comes close to matching their zeal, but they certainly need competition.

With Android 2.0 and the release of the Motorola Droid (late 2009 for both), the iPhone finally had a worthy competitor. Things have just been getting better and better for the platform with the release of the Nexus One, Android 2.1, and Droid Incredible. Soon the Evo 4G and Android 2.2 will be here to add fuel to the fire. Apple and Google are competing on so many fronts these days — advertising, web browsers, mobile operating systems, television, etc. Perhaps Gundotra’s comments were made to bring fanboys into the Google fold. If so, it’s a wise move.

In the end, Google will not be able to get its fanboys to be as passionate or numerous as Apple’s. In the end, it doesn’t matter. It just needs enough numbers to be a strong #2 or #3. As I told RPadholic smartguy recently, Google’s core competency is advertising and it doesn’t need to be #1 as long as it has millions of customers to serve ads to.

Apple Sells Two-Million iPads in Two Months

Apple has announced that it has sold two-million iPads in less than 60 days. Considering that the device is only (officially) available in certain countries, the number is extremely impressive. I expected the iPad to be tremendously successful, but this situation is different from the success of the iPod and iPhone. There were popular MP3 players before the iPod and popular smartphones before the iPhone. In both of those categories, Apple took things to another level be offering a refined and consumer-friendly experience. In the case of the iPad, Apple was the first company to bring tablet computing to the masses.

The iPad is just a fantastic device for media consumption. I know that a few of you had doubts about the iPad before its release. After seeing those sales figures, how do ya like ‘dem Apples?

HTC Evo 4G (Not) Review Part 5: Camera Thoughts and Test Shots

My HTC Evo 4G (not a) review continues! This installment covers the phone’s camera. Since HTC has a history of serving up phones with merely average cameras, my expectations were low in this department. I was pleasantly surprised to have them exceeded. While the Evo 4G’s camera isn’t as good as the ones in several Nokia, Samsung, and Sony-Ericcson phones I’ve used, I’d say it’s above average. It will let you snap good photos in pure auto mode. If you take the time to adjust settings, you can snap really good photos with it.

Some reviewers have complained about the Evo 4G’s lack of a dedicated camera button. This wasn’t a problem for me at all. I love the camera’s touch-to-focus feature and almost always use a focus point that isn’t dead center. I understand why some people prefer a dedicated button, but for me it doesn’t get easier than touching your focus point to take a shot (and no, “touching your focus point” is not code for pleasuring yourself).

Since none of you are trying to be Ansel Adam with a camera-phone, all of the test shots I snapped were in full auto mode. This first batch is a bunch pictures that didn’t use the flash. As expected, the camera works best when there’s plenty of natural light. The results were mostly good, but overly sharp.

Here are some shots in low-light conditions using the HTC Evo 4G’s dual-LED flash. The camera’s flash is very powerful and can easily mangle shots. It can blow things out and usually produces images that are too soft. This is not unexpected for a camera phone. I do like that the Evo has a strong flash, unlike some other smartphones. The flash is a good tool, but it’s easy to misuse.

I also snapped a quick video in 720p with the Evo 4G. The video quality is very, very good but it’s difficult to show you the true output. Sure, you can go to this video’s YouTube page and watch the 720p version, but it’s still not the same as plugging the phone directly into an HDTV through HDMI. Hopefully this gives you a decent idea of the phone’s video capabilities.