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ViewSonic: from displays to smartphones.
Unhappy laptop owners sue Nvidia.
Adobe helps media player builders.
Twitter: bigger than NYT, WSJ.
Help! My iPhone is overheating.
Intel’s laptop and netbook roadmap.
Why is Microsoft raising money?
Microsoft tweets about Zune phone?
By Ed Oswald | Posted at 9:38 pm on Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The folks over at Tmonews have got their hands on a screenshot of a rollout list for June and July for T-Mobile, and by the looks of it it will be a busy month. While most of the news revolves around new phone models, one listing is for a feature that iPhone users have grown to love: visual voicemail.
However it will be done, or what devices it would be available on, is not yet known. But official support for the feature is set for July 16th, and training for employees would begin next month.
It’s likely that we’ll see this functionality on T-Mobile’s smart devices first and foremost, such as the G1, which can already do visual voicemail through a third-party application. I’m sure to compete with the iPhone, T-Mobile will definitely add it to at least the G1 — let’s face it, that’s the intention of the G1 for the carrier.
The phone lineup looks interesting too. The Sony Ericsson CS8 will be the first, an 8.1 megapixel (wow) camera phone launching on June 24, and would be followed by a 3G version of the T-Mobile Dash due on July 1st.
Two new Samsungs would be launched for the “back to school” shopping season, the t469 and t549, both apparently slide out keyboard texting phones (get why they’re the back to school phones? Those crazy texting kids.) due the 15th.
Finally on August 12, the high-end Windows Mobile-powered Rhodium will hit the shelves. Gee, this looks an awful lot like the iPhone with a slide out keyboard, don’t ya think?
It’s worth noting by the way that all these phones are 3G capable. T-Mobile is beginning the push to get its customers into the 21st century. About time, eh?
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 9:32 am on Friday, April 24, 2009
By Ed Oswald | Posted at 9:47 am on Monday, April 6, 2009
T-Mobile has been one of Google’s biggest supporters in the US when it comes to Android. Confidential documents obtained by the New York Times indicate that the carrier plans to take that partnership even further with at least two new devices due to launch in 2010.
The first of the two would be a home phone unit that would plug into a docking station and would have some type of additional device for data synchronization. It sounds very similar to the Hub that Verizon Wireless has begun selling recently.
As for the tablet, it is said to be a 7-inch device without a keyboard. While it’s exact specs are not known, it would likely act much like the netbooks that have seen increasing popularity in recent months.
Spokesperson Peter Dobrow would not confirm the report, but did share that the company plans to release “several” Android devices in the future. It will be interesting to see if T-Mobile’s gamble on Android pays off, if/when the OS takes off.
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 9:33 am on Monday, April 6, 2009
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 7:04 am on Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Mac desktops aside, fairly quiet:
EyeFi Wi-Fi cards double memory.
T-Mobile’s fifty-buck calling plan.
HBO prepping more online video?
iPhone users dominate mobile Web.
Intel targets more mobile gizmos.
Apple’s quiet MacBook Pro upgrade.
Hey, Apple: no numeric keypad?
By Ed Oswald | Posted at 9:54 am on Thursday, November 20, 2008
T-Mobile on Thursday switched some things around concerning its data plans, which in some cases could mean rate increases for some consumers. In addition, it launched its T-Zones replacement, web2go, and is adding a new download marketplace for consumers.
In some cases, the rate increases are rather dramatic. Here’s a rundown:
These are horrific price increases. In every case, the cost of data on a T-Mobile plan is going to double in the least in some cases. The worst thing is while old customers will have their plans grandfathered, you bet the carrier’s going to likely force you to upgrade your plan when you upgrade your phone.
It used to be that T-Mobile was the leader in competitive data pricing. Now the carrier is like everybody else. I have family members on the service (I just switched to AT&T and went through ETF hell with T-Mobile, which I will talk about in a future post). The rest of my family were all staying for the cheap BlackBerry prices. That’s no longer the case.
web2go pricingis a little less clear, but Tmonews has some limited information. It is a replacement for T-Zones. A free version would be available to consumers to download and purchase content as well as view account information as before.
Two plans would be offered for phones that have connectivity as a secondary option – 50MB data and 200 messages or 100MB data and unlimited message, with a 20 cent overage fee per megabyte. All-in-one devices would have two unlimited data options, with a choice of either 400 messsages or unlimited messaging.
(Update: Hat tip to JT in the comments who does note I do have it slightly off here, I’ve corrected.)
By Ed Oswald | Posted at 7:00 pm on Thursday, November 13, 2008
Jackie Emigh over at BetaNews has the details on a very interesting proposition: a digital picture frame with it’s own phone number. T-Mobile has teamed up with Parrot to offer the Cameo, which would allow users to simply message the device with pictures, which would then be displayed on the frame.
The T-Mobile Cameo will sell for a fairly reasonable price of $99.99. A $9.99 monthly service charge would be required in order for the picture frame to work, and users would have the choice of either using MMS or e-mail to send pictures to the device.
While it’s (slightly) gimmicky, it certainly has some promising uses. These digital photo frame companies have long promoted these devices as a way to keep distant loved ones closer by allowing us to send them pictures and whatnot.
The problem has always been that these devices needed a Wi-Fi connection or a landline. I know it’s hard to believe but among some segments of the population Internet connectivity, much less Wi-Fi, is not very common.
Add to this the fact that significant numbers of us have also dropped our landlines and you see where I’m going with this.
Hats off to T-mobile and Parrot for a bit of forward thinking with this. I guess we will see if there is really a market for these connected picture frame devices, eh? One thing we’ll have to worry about is actually having service where we live — T-Mobile has been known to have signal issues within buildings, and in some areas there is no service at all.
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 8:05 am on Thursday, October 16, 2008
T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone to use Google’s Android operating system, doesn’t go officially on sale until October 22nd. But a bunch of reviews ave hit the Web. And since I don’t have a G1–I’m hoping to remedy that–I’ve been reading other folks’ takes on the device.
After the jump, highly-compressed summaries of three of the reviews I’ve checked out so far.
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 10:09 pm on Saturday, September 27, 2008
I still run hot and cold on the prospects for Google’s Android OS. With this week’s launch of the T-Mobile G1, though, I’m feeling fairly upbeat about it. For now, at least… Continue reading this story…
By Ed Oswald | Posted at 11:31 am on Thursday, September 25, 2008
Well, that was quick. Not much more than a day after it first disclosed a 1GB bandwidth cap for users of the G1 Android phone, T-Mobile USA did an about-face and has decided to not enforce any kind of restriction after all.
In a response to questions by the New York Times’ Saul Hansell, T-Mobile said Wednesday night that it had decided to remove the cap. Courtesy of the Bits blog, here is a portion of their statement:
We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers.
Like I had said in our initial post on the subject, T-Mobile does have a right to ensure that all users get a satisfactory level of service, which the carrier argued as well. But at the same time, bandwidth caps have been almost universally criticized, and would have done more harm to T-Mobile than good.
The removal of the cap isn’t the end of the road, however. T-Mobile is looking into other ways to protect its network from high-bandwidth users, it said.
By David A. Sampayo | Posted at 10:35 am on Thursday, September 25, 2008
On Tuesday morning, months of anticipation, speculation, software controversy, and hardware rumors came to a head as T-Mobile executives and Google’s top brass unveiled the G1, the first “Googlephone.” As reporters and bloggers got their hands on the detailed specifications about the device, the software, and the terms of service, hundreds of inevitable comparisons were drawn between the iPhone and this fledgling product. But the differences between the two platforms go far beyond simple differences in specs.
Google is pursuing a decidedly different market strategy with Android. The brilliance of Apple’s iPhone strategy–besides the fact that the phone itself is so compelling–was in the sequence of announcements. You can bet your last share of Lehman stock that Steve Jobs had the App Store and iPhone SDK planned from the start, but did not release them initially on purpose. Apple first announced the iPhone in January of 2007, wowed the tech community, built up six months of hot anticipation, and released it in June of the same year. Its market share immediately exploded, well beyond initial predictions, grabbing percentage points in the double digits within months.
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 1:32 pm on Wednesday, September 24, 2008
So T-Mobile’s G1 has been unveiled. It looks neat–and it looks like the most serious rival to the iPhone yet, though the BlackBerry Bold could be a contender once AT&T starts selling the darn thing.
What the G1 doesn’t seem to be is transcendent–a phone that’s as impressive as the iPhone, but in different ways. And the world could use such a phone. Some stuff about the iPhone is a matter of personal preference: Lots of folks are OK with the onscreen keyboard, but there are at least as many hardcore smartphone users who won’t ever buy a phone that doesn’t have (to quote Steve Jobs) little plastic keys.
Then there are the things about the iPhone that may stress out even Apple’s biggest fans, such as the company’s monopoly on application distribution and its mysterious, troubling policies on what does and doesn’t get in. All in all, I think there’s an opportunity for somebody to build a phone that’s the opposite of an iPhone in some ways, and better than an iPhone in others, and maybe even open in ways that no phone has been to date. And Google’s Android OS seems like the best platform to build it on.
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 4:32 pm on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
We now know a heck of a lot more about T-Mobile’s G1–the first “Googlephone”–than we did last night. But the phone won’t show up for almost another month. So unless you’re lucky enough to be one of the few folks who has one now–such as Walt Mossberg–it’s impossible to answer the most important question about the phone. Which is, of course, “Is it any good?” (Actually even Walt is reserving judgement, although he’s pretty positive overall.)
That leaves plenty of time to ask questions about the phone and the Android OS it’s based on. Such as…
By Ed Oswald | Posted at 3:36 pm on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
You’d think T-Mobile would have learned from all the hubbub surrounding the Comcast bandwidth throttling mess, and Rogers’ fights with Canadian customers over its paltry iPhone 3G plans. Customers want their data, and they want it unlimited and unfettered. But maybe they haven’t gotten the memo.
Fine print on the carrier’s page for the device may give some pause, especially for the heavy data users among us.
“If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less. Your data session, plan, or service may be suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users.”
While of course the company is well within its rights to attempt to keep service available for all of its users, the data limits stink. A majority of users will probably never make it to 1GB of data, I’ve been able to use 600MB easy in a month on my iPhone, and I know others who’ve used far more. Getting throttled, especially after I am paying a premium for faster data, would anger me quite a bit.
I’ve done a search through AT&T’s policies for the iPhone and cannot find a similar policy for the iPhone. When Canada’s Rogers came out in July with its meager data plans which capped data at 1GB (that is for data included in the plan), they were rightly criticized for it.
One thing is for sure — T-Mobile shouldn’t be advertising this as an “unlimited 3G data,” because technically that isn’t true true. I guess it remains to be seen how aggressively they’ll police this. Don’t be surprised if users begin to complain quite vocally if the carrier has a heavy hand.
We’ve got a request in for official comment, and we’ll update this post if and when we hear back.
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 9:48 am on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
It was all but official for what seemed like an eternity. Now it’s just official, period: T-Mobile is releasing the G1, the first phone powered by Google’s Android operating system. It’s essentially impossible to not instinctively compare it to the iPhone 3G. With phones more than almost any other technology device, the devil is in the details, and the best thing about the iPhone–its incredibly refined user interface–needs to be experienced to be appreciated. So a real comparison of the two superphones will need to be a hands-on one.
Still, there’s some value in a simple features comparison. Here’s my first stab at one, with data from sources such as Gizmodo’s writeup of the G1. (What’s a T-Grid? It’s an at-a-glance comparison in this format, and we’ll be doing them on other topics as appropriate.)
By Harry McCracken | Posted at 7:30 am on Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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