Tag: Mobile Tech

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.

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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.]

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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.

HTC Evo 4G (Not) Review Part 4: Calls, Apps, Games, and More

I’ve been using the HTC Evo 4G for a week and wanted to update my (not a) review with more thoughts on this excellent phone. (Here are the links to part 1, part 2, and part 3 if you missed it.) This time around I’m going to talk about the phone’s call quality, apps, games and more. While some of these aspects are more about the Android platform than the actual phone, I wanted to give you a sense of what the overall Evo 4G experience is like. Let’s go!

Call Quality: Unlike most of my friends, I actually use my mobile phone to make a lot of phone calls. I know it’s crazy, but it’s true (Christopher Cross). For the last nine months I’ve been using a BlackBerry Curve 8900 on T-Mobile as my personal phone, so I’ll use that as a measuring stick. Compared to the 8900 on UMA (WiFi), the call quality is comparable. Everything sounded clear, though I wish the ear piece had an additional level or two of volume. The people I spoke with on the Evo 4G said I sounded good, but it was obvious that I was calling from a mobile phone. Compared to the 8900 on Edge, it was no contest. The Evo 4G was much, much better.

Since everyone is comparing the Evo 4G to the iPhone — rightly or wrongly — I’ll throw in that comparison as well. The Evo 4G kicks the iPhone 3GS’ ass as a telephone. It’s not even close. Overall I was very satisfied with how the Evo 4G works as a phone. Keep in mind that my calls were made in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Your experience may be different depending on where you work and play.

Apps: A lot of you aren’t familiar with the Android Market, so I wanted to discuss my experience with it on the Evo 4G. Obviously this isn’t a measure of the phone itself, but the Android platform. In terms of reference, media playing, and social apps, the Android Market has almost everything I want. Sure, the iPhone App Store has way more choices, but more isn’t always better. Sometimes it’s just more.

The two apps that I missed from my iPhone 3GS are Tweetdeck and a full Skype client. The former is on its way to Android and should be released in the next few weeks. I didn’t think the latter was coming to the Evo 4G due to Verizon’s limited exclusivity agreement with Skype, but it looks like Skype will be hitting the Android Market before the end of the year. What makes it particularly exciting for this phone is that video calls can be made thanks to the Evo 4G’s dual cameras.

Naturally, Google Apps are better on Android than any other platform. I love the phone’s version of Google Maps, Google Voice, Google Goggles, etc.

Games: Modern games is one area where Android is way, way behind the iPhone platform. The games selection in the Android Market is relatively thin and most of the titles aren’t very good. Having said that, I’m completely confident that gaming will improve on Android. Developers are flocking to the platform due to its rapid growth and comparative openness to iPhone OS. Google also hired Mark DeLoura as an Android developer advocate for gaming. DeLoura worked at Sony Computer Entertainment America’s developer relations division for a long time and was a technical director at Ubi Soft. I’ve known him for years. When I learned about his job at Google, I became way more interested in Android’s future as a gaming platform. The dude is very sharp and I know Android gaming will be much better now that he’s involved.

While current games on Android aren’t the best, the Android Market has several emulators for fans of classic games. Game Boy Color, Genesis, NES, and SNES emulators are available and it’s incredibly easy to find ROMs on the Internet. While the controls aren’t the best for games the require precision (think difficult platformers), they’re totally fine for RPGs. Considering that’s my favorite genre and the NES/SNES has some of the best RPGs of all time, these emulators will keep me busy. Just to CMA I have to note that you’re only supposed to emulate games that you own.

Voice to Text: This is one aspect of Android that I didn’t think I would care for but have come to love. The voice recognition is the best I’ve ever used. I’m astonished by how effective it is. It definitely takes some adjustment to train yourself to even think to use voice to text, but once you do it can be a real time saver. Plus, it just feels cool! It totally makes me feel like Captain Picard.

N8R’s Question: To answer RPadholic N8R’s question from the second part of this review, the Evo 4G supports a ton of file formats. For audio, MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AMR, and MIDI work. For video, MPEG4, H.263, and H.264 are supported. I’ve viewed several MP4 and MKV files successfully on the Evo.

Next up I’m going to talk about the Evo 4G’s camera. Still images and video will be used. If you have any questions for now, fire away!

Skype with Video Chat Coming to Android Market (and My Evo 4G)

My biggest problem with the HTC Evo 4G is the lack of a proper Skype client. If you’ve been reading my stuff for awhile then you know that I rely heavily on the UMA features of my BlackBerry Curve 8900 and Skype app on my iPhone 3GS while traveling internationally. The lack of a full Skype client on the Evo 4G is the only deal-breaker issue I have with the phone. With Verizon’s exclusive agreement with Skype, I didn’t think it was coming. Thankfully, I was wrong. Skatter Tech received an email from Skype PR spokesperson Brianna Reynaud that said:

Skype envisions a world where video plays a larger role in the way we communicate. The next generation innovation involving video calling will not be bound to the computer. We’re seeing a proliferation of video calling shared between all kinds of connected devices. It’s on computers (today 1/3 of all calls on Skype happen via video), televisions (Skype bringing video calls to living rooms via Panasonic, Samsung & LG partnership), and it will eventually be coming to mobile devices too. We’re betting big on video, and we intend to set the bar on mobile video calling, and it’s something we’re going to do this year.

We will be bringing a direct to consumer app to the Android marketplace later this year. This application will be available for all consumers globally to download regardless of carriers. (i.e. similar to how we offer the iPhone app today)

Obviously this is exciting news for me as an avid Skype user. It’s also exciting for people that are planning to buy an Evo 4G. The phone has a front-facing camera and allows for video chat. Skype has years of experience with PC-to-PC video-chat and I expect the company’s solution to be one of the best out there. I want this app now! Hopefully “later this year” is closer to now than it is December.

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Android Kicking iPhone OS’ Ass? Don’t Believe the Hype!

I touched on this when I posted Fake Steve Jobs’ hilarious anti-Android rant earlier today — I just can’t believe how many tech writers and gadget enthusiasts have written off Apple iPhone OS and crowned Google Android the king of the smartphone world. Whether it’s Gizmodo, ZDNet, The Next Web, or millions of forum ranters, you’d think that Apple has no chance at “catching up” to Google. Ninja please!!!

Don’t think I’m an Apple fanboy or anything. I love Google Android. I think it’s a fantastic operating system and a wonderful platform. In several respects, it does things way better than iPhone OS. Of course iPhone OS has several advantages as well. The bottom line is that they’re competitive products that offer different things that appeal to different consumers. Just because Google announced a bunch of great Android 2.2 enhancements at Google I/O 2010 doesn’t mean that it has suddenly left Apple in the dust.

Remember, Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is right around the corner. You can bet that Steve Jobs’ keynote on June 7 will be full of excellent iPhone sorcery. Yes, a lot of iPhone OS 4 details were revealed in April, but do you really think that’s all Apple has up its sleeve? I fully expect Jobs to wow consumers with great iPhone hardware and software features. I have no doubt in my mind that he will unveil a few things that will make Android users jealous.

Google has done a marvelous job with Android in a very short period of time. The OS has matured nicely. The development community has grown rapidly. Don’t think I’m dismissing those things. That said, iPhone is still the best mobile platform for media consumption. It still has the larger app catalog. It still has a sexiness that — rightly or wrongly — a lot of mainstream consumers buy into. Android is in an excellent place at the moment, but saying or implying that it’s trouncing iPhone is just preposterous.

So yeah! (I use that phrase because Eddie Izzard uses it, btw.) Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that online journalists are being reactionary and sensational. I just think it’s misleading to proclaim Google Android as the new king of the world when the reality is that it’s a competitive market now. And really, that’s great for consumers looking for a smartphone. It’s going to be all Magic vs. Bird with the two companies pushing each other to greatness.

Verizon Confirms Tiered Data Pricing for LTE

Enjoy your all-you-can-eat data plan while you can because mobile data’s future is tiered pricing. In a sign of where the industry is headed, Verizon has confirmed that its 4G LTE network will not use the “unlimited” model that’s in place today. Instead customers will be charged for buckets of data. PhoneScoop has the…uh…scoop:

Speaking at a conference this week, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said that it will not offer unlimited use of its Long Term Evolution network, and will instead use tiered pricing programs. McAdam indicated that customers will “buy buckets of data by the megabyte.”

RPadholic smartguy felt that this is what 4G would lead to and I agreed with him when he mentioned it. This is the first time I can recall an executive from one of the “big four” mobile providers confirming tiered pricing for LTE. While it costs a lot of money to deploy new technology, it will actually be cheaper for mobile carriers to send and receive data with LTE than it is with current tech. I’m curious to see what the new pricing schemes will be like; the cynic in me sees mobile carriers making more money than ever with data-hungry phones and tiered pricing. *sigh*

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