Tag: Mobile Tech

Coffee Talk #327: The Last Gen of Pure Gaming Portables?

Will the next generation of portable gaming systems be multifaceted devices? Or will a gaming-focused experience still dominate at the end of this decade? Is the future of portable gaming more…

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, Sin Cara debuting the day after WrestleMania, Angelina Jolie’s boobtastic comic book, or Stumptown’s Indonesia Sulawesi Toarco Peaberry, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Handheld gaming is at a crossroads. Largely due to the increased gaming capabilities of Apple iOS products, I don’t think it’s enough for a portable gaming system to be focused primarily on games. With that in mind, do you think that the Nintendo 3DS — which is almost all about gaming no matter what Nintendo claims — will be the last handheld system of its kind?

The original PlayStation Portable was, perhaps, ahead of its time. In addition to great games, it offered strong multimedia capabilities (music, movies, photos), web browsing, communication (Skype), and more. It’s too early to tell, but it looks like the upcoming NGP will bring it all together, offering gaming, social networking, streaming movies, Internet access, communications, and multimedia in a much tighter way than its predecessor.

Will the next generation of portable gaming systems be multifaceted devices? Or will a gaming-focused experience still dominate at the end of this decade? Is the future of portable gaming more NGP or more 3DS? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!

Amazon Cloud Player Beats Apple and Google to the Punch

Amazon has launched a streaming music and an online storage service called Cloud Player and Cloud Drive, respectively. Cloud Drive allows users to store music and other files in the cloud (duh). Music can be streamed to any PC or Google Android phone via Cloud Player. The free version of Cloud Drive comes with 5GB of storage. Users can purchase additional space or purchase a digital album, which bumps their total to 20GB.

This is a bold and exciting move by Amazon. While the company’s MP3 store does well, it’s still way behind Apple iTunes. Offering cloud services (not to mention generally lower prices) could help attract more customers away from Apple. Both Apple and Google are known to be readying cloud-based music-services. Amazon has beaten its competitors to the punch and there’s always something to be said for being first.

Furthermore, Cloud Player looks like another facet of Amazon’s future Android strategy. Last week I speculated that Amazon will almost definitely have Amazon-branded phones and tablets running Google Android. Can you picture an Amazon Android phone with perfect integration of Amazon’s Android Appstore and Cloud Player? Wouldn’t a phone or tablet that offered simple purchasing of Amazon goods — both digital and physical — be a potentially huge moneymaker for the company? It seems so brilliant…and scary.

Let me know what you think of Amazon’s Cloud Player and Cloud Drive (please). Are they services you’d definitely use? Or does music in the cloud not interest you?

Amazon Android Appstore Offers Nifty “Test Drive” Feature

Amazon’s Android Appstore already offers a compelling alternative to the Google Android Market by giving away paid apps daily. Amazon’s Android Market competitor has gotten even more interesting with its “test drive” feature. This nifty bit of code allows you to try and experiment with an app from a PC using a virtual phone. Allowing users to tinker with possible purchases should lead to higher buy rates. At the very least, it keeps customers on the Amazon site, which can lead to all sorts of purchases.

If you have a chance, check out test drive on the Amazon Android Appstore. I think it’s a fantastic feature that further differentiates the Amazon Android Appstore from the Google Android Market. How about you?

Coffee Talk #326: Debating a Fall Release for the iPhone 5

Since 2008, Apple has announced a new iPhone model at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It looks like that will not be the case this year. Should Apple continue to launch iPhones in…

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, the brilliant mic work by Shawn Michaels, Triple, and The Undertaker on last night’s Raw, Jose Canseco’s evil twin, or Barry Bonds’ ex-girlfriend’s entertaining testimony, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Since 2008, Apple has announced a new iPhone model at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It looks like that will not be the case this year. The Loop — one of the most reliable sources of leaked Apple info — has reported that WWDC 2011 will be software only. Taking the rumor a step further, TechCrunch’s sources told it that the next iPhone (iPhone 5? iPhone 4G?) will be announced in September for a Fall 2011 release. If the second rumor is true then this could mark an interesting shift in Apple’s consumer electronics strategy.

Traditionally, Apple’s September events have focused on the iPod. With the crazy success of the iPhone and iPad, the iPod has become less important. Some have argued that it makes more sense to release the next iPhone later in the year in order to make it one of the most desirable holiday gifts around. The counter-argument is that Apple already has a hard time meeting demand for iPhones when they’re released in the summer; compounding the release of a hot new product with the holiday rush would be a recipe for disaster.

Does Apple even need a new iPhone this summer? The iPhone 4 (on AT&T and Verizon) is still selling at a brisk rate. Additionally, pushing the release to later this year would give Apple a chance to implement a next-gen LTE radio that’s more battery efficient while allowing the next iPhone to take advantage of the outstanding speeds offered by Verizon LTE. The counter-argument is that over the next few months there will be several Google Android phones with 4G speeds, dual-core processors, qHD screens, and more. Some say Apple has the luxury of time. Others don’t.

How do you think things will shake out? Will the iPhone be announced at a later date this summer? Or will it be announced in September? Should Apple continue to launch iPhones in the June/July? Or will it make more bank kicking things off in September/October? Kindly vote in the poll and share your thoughts!

[poll id=”108″]

4G Shootout: Sprint vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon

American mobile carriers are in another pissing contest. This time around it’s all about 4G broadband — or really 4G-like speeds, since none of the technologies being used today are actually 4G. Sprint, using WiMax, was the first carrier out of the gate. T-Mobile followed by upgrading its network to HSPA+. Verizon recently launched its LTE network.

3 Carriers + 3 “4G” Technologies = Confused Customers

To give you an idea of the real-world performance offered by Sprint WiMax, T-Mobile HSPA+, and Verizon LTE, I ran some speed tests in three cities. I used a Sprint Epic 4G, a T-Mobile G2, and an HTC Thunderbolt at LAX (Los Angeles), SFO (San Francisco), and JFK (New York) —  you know, the three American cities that matter *joke*. Here are the results.

Los Angeles

Ping Download Upload
Sprint Epic 4G 333 ms 3.85 Mbps 1.52 Mbps
T-Mobile G2 87 ms 1.25 Mbps 0.89 Mbps
HTC Thunderbolt 91 ms 13.4 Mbps 27.74 Mbps

San Francisco

Ping Download Upload
Sprint Epic 4G 371 ms 7.11 Mbps 1.53 Mbps
T-Mobile G2 114 ms 0.91 Mbps 0.87 Mbps
HTC Thunderbolt 83 ms 16.31 Mbps 27.77 Mbps

New York

Ping Download Upload
Sprint Epic 4G 80 ms 4.10 Mbps 0.96 Mbps
T-Mobile G2 80 ms 3.09 Mbps 1.72 Mbps
HTC Thunderbolt 108 ms 13.55 Mbps 32.34 Mbps

As you can see, Verizon’s LTE network beats the crap out of Sprint’s WiMax and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ networks. However, there are several things to keep in mind. First, Verizon LTE just launched and there aren’t many devices available for it. As more users pull from the network, speeds will go down.

T-Mobile’s results at LAX and SFO were interesting and a sign of the network’s limited range; I regularly get great speeds on T-Mobile in the actual cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the airports were another matter. The company has also started rolling out a faster version of HSPA+ that hits a theoretical max of 42 Mbps. It’s only available in three cities at the moment, but should hit 25 markets by mid-2011. Early tests show that real-world speeds of “HSPA+ 42” are inline with Verizon LTE speeds.

Most importantly, there are several reports of Speedtest.net not handling LTE upload tests properly. Verizon claims that uploads on the Thunderbolt hit anywhere from 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps. I would ignore the the upload results I pulled on the Thunderbolt.

As always, it comes down to network performance where you live, work, and play. These are just data points from three airports. While they show the relative performance of three 4G networks in these areas, the results could be very different in your neck of the woods.

If you have any questions about the results and my 4G experiences, fire away in the comments section!

14-Year Old’s Astute iPad 2 Analysis

I was really impressed with JP Teti’s analysis of how the iPad has opened up computing to more people than ever. So many tech writers focus on the iPad’s limitations and Apple’s “walled garden”. Few of them write about how it has made personal computing more accessible to a broad audience. I don’t agree with all of Teti’s points, but most of his arguments are sound. Here’s an excerpt:

The iPad is actually opening up technology to more people. None of this crap about it being closed is accurate. By giving people freedom to explore the app store without having to worry about anything (except their wallets), Apple has possibly made the best move they could make — by locking down the iPad’s installation sources. That’s the one that’s the most helpful for the general state of technology. Apple is encouraging people to explore and play around. The iPad only does less than a regular computer to us geeks. To everyone else, it does more. This is what Motorola and Google and Samsung and BlackBerry and everyone else, with the sole exception of Apple, do not get about “open” computing. It’s powerful, but for ordinary people, it’s too powerful.

Tech writers — especially those in San Francisco — often get caught up in their own little world. It’s funny that an eighth-grader was able to see something that escapes so many people that are paid a lot of money to cover Apple products.

Source via Daring Fireball

My Three Favorite Products From CTIA 2011

CTIA Wireless International 2011 just wrapped up and loads of hot mobile products were announced at the show. From scorching phones to hot tablets, the show was a nice sneak peak at what’s next in the mobile world. Here are my three favorite products from CTIA 2011.

Google Nexus S 4G (Sprint): Although the Nexus S is a few months old, I was excited by what this updated product represents. The Nexus S 4G is pretty much a Nexus S with an additional radio for Sprint’s WiMax network. I love that a vanilla Android flagship product will be available on another carrier (the original Nexus S works with T-Mobile’s frequencies). I also loved that this product was announced along with a company-wide integration of Google Voice. I’m a huge fan of Google Voice and hope that Google can strike similar deals with other carriers. I also find it hilarious that people are already speculating that Google plans to buy Sprint (I sincerely doubt it).

HTC Evo View 4G (Sprint): This Sprint tablet is based off of the HTC Flyer, which I fell in love with (at least in terms of looks) in February. Sadly, the shiny aluminum sexiness was traded for a darker look. Still, it’s a good looking tablet and packs some nice HTC Sense features. It will be interesting to see if Sprint can do well with a seven-inch tablet with ample multimedia features. I’m curious to see if the 1.5GHz processor can cut the mustard. Early benchmarks (albeit on pre-release  software) were not impressive. I’m also interested to see how long it will take for a Honeycomb upgrade. Perhaps the Evo View 4G’s beauty is only skin deep? Still, she’d make a nice trophy wife.

T-Mobile G2X: Going into the show, I did not care about this product at all. It’s based off of the LG Optimus 2X, which features excellent hardware that’s crippled by a crap Android skin. When I learned that T-Mobile’s version will feature vanilla Android, I suddenly got interested. When I learned that this phone will be compatible with T-Mobile’s updated “HSPA+ 42” speeds, I got super interested. (HSPA+ 42 offers speeds that are inline with and sometimes surpass Verizon’s mercurial LTE network.) I’m not a fan of the plastic construction and a few friends at the show said that it felt cheap, but man this phone’s internal components are hot. Aside from the plastic, it’s pretty much everything I want in a phone — big screen, dual-core processor, T-Mobile WiFi calling, and zippy broadband speeds.

Those were the three CTIA 2011 products that got my motor running. Any of ’em interest you? How about other products that were announced at the show?

Square Enix iOS Games on Sale Until March 31

Square Enix is running a sale on several iOS games. The deals are good until March 31, 2011. There’s lots of great stuff to be had. I’m only listing the games because I think the art galleries are kind of stupid. Here’s the list:

Square Enix is running a sale on several iOS games. The deals are good until March 31, 2011. There’s lots of great stuff to be had. I’m only listing the games because I think the art galleries are kind of stupid. Anyway, here’s the list:

iPhone and iPod Touch
Chaos Rings: $12.99 $5.99
Crystal Defenders: $7.99 $3.99
Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes – Encore: $9.99 $4.99
Final Fantasy I: $8.99 $3.99
Final Fantasy II: $8.99 $3.99
Vanguard Storm: $3.99 $1.99
Sliding Heroes: $0.99 Free
Hills and Rivers Remain: $4.99 $1.99
Voice Fantasy: $2.99 $0.99
Secret of Mana: $8.99 $3.99

iPad
Chaos Rings: $15.99 $7.99
Crystal Defenders: $7.99 $3.99
Chocobo Panic: $3.99 $1.99

Just head on over to the App Store to take advantage of these deals. I’m probably going to pick up Chaos Rings (iPad version) and Secret of Mana. How about you? Any of these games catch your eye?

iPad 2 Launches Globally…While Americans Still Wait

Apple’s iPad 2 launches globally today. It will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Meanwhile in America, thousands of customers that placed online orders on the U.S. launch day (March 11) are still waiting for product.

I got my order in late on launch day and have an estimated (and probably exaggerated) ship date of April 1. Browsing through Apple’s forums, customers that placed their orders around the same time I did will be getting product next week. Hopefully mine ships soon as well. The good news is that Dragon Age II has kept me thoroughly entertained. Otherwise I’d be annoyed by one of the most poorly handled launches in recent Apple history. I’d be especially annoyed that some guy in Belgium will be enjoying his iPad 2 today while eating fries (which are Belgian, not French) and drinking Hoegaarden while I’m still waiting for my damn product to ship.

This launch would have been so much better if Apple did online pre-orders and waited a month to build up a healthy supply of units. Screw the Portuguese people. I want my frickin’ iPad 2 already.

Motorola Working on its Own Mobile OS?

I was shocked to learn that Motorola Mobility is most likely working on its own mobile operating system. I want to call someone at Motorola to say, “Uh, didn’t you guys fail at this already?” and, “Haven’t you been watching Nokia’s downfall?” While it seems prudent to diversify offerings, I also think it’s a monumental waste of money for Motorola to develop a new mobile operating system at this time. Here’s the scoop from InformationWeek:

Motorola Mobility has hired a number of experienced mobile and Web engineers from Apple and Adobe and is developing a Web-based mobile operating system as a possible alternative to Google’s Android software, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Over the past nine months, Motorola has been hiring engineering talent that would well-suited to create a new mobile operating system. Its team appears to include a significant number of ex-Apple and Adobe personnel, including Gilles Drieu, VP of software engineering at Motorola Mobility, Benoit Marchant, director of engineering at Motorola Mobility, and Sean Kranzberg, also a director of engineering at Motorola Mobility.

The consumer smartphone market is currently dominated by Apple iOS and Google Android. RIM’s BlackBerry OS is still immensely popular on the corporate side, but its market share will probably continue to decline. Microsoft is aggressively trying to establish Windows Phone 7. It’s a fresh and interesting OS that’s backed by a ton of MS money, but it seems unlikely to nab a significant piece of the market. The same goes for the innovative webOS, which is now owned by HP — great product that will probably never achieve notable market share. As you can see, the mobile market is full of quality operating systems. (It also has Samsung Bada. *zing*)

Assuming InformationWeek’s sources are correct, I can’t believe that Motorola wants to get in this race. Do you think it’s wise for Motorola to build its own OS? Or is the company out of its frickin’ mind?

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