Tag Archives | Smartphones

The Verizon iPhone 4 Reviews Are In. I Bet You Can Guess the Overall Gist

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 3, 2011 at 8:53 am

The Verizon iPhone 4 doesn’t hit stores until a week from today. But if you’re interested in whetting your appetite, read one or more of the reviews which started hitting the Web yesterday evening. They vary in length, comprehensiveness, and attitude, but in many ways they’re remarkably similar. Everyone points out that the AT&T and Verizon flavors of the phone are largely identical. Everyone mentions AT&T advantages, such as international capability, the option to talk and use data at the same time, and–when 3G coverage is strong–the faster data. Everyone talks about the Verizon network’s robustness and discusses the new hotspot feature. And everyone reports a good experience with the Verizon version and gives it a thumbs up–often decisively so over the A&T one.

As usual, the last paragraphs of the reviews often serve as the most concise summary of the overall take. So here they are–along with links to the reviews in their entirety.

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Google Spills the Details on Its Tablet OS, Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Posted by Melissa Perenson on February 2, 2011 at 3:04 pm

[This article is republished courtesy of our pals at PCWorld.]

The great tease is over: Today, here at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Google showed off Android 3.0, a tablet-friendly operating system also known as Honeycomb. The new tablet OS emphasizes a slick interface, beefed up graphics for games, and support for in-app purchases.

Along with the new operating system, Google also announced an Android Market Website that allows Android phone and tablet users to browse, purchase, and download apps directly to their devices — no wires or USB syncing to a PC needed. The Web-based Android Market is live now.

The live Android 3.0 demos were performed on the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet. Google showed off other enhancements to the OS, such as a Contact Shortcuts feature that allows you to create quick links to contacts for video chatting or sending e-mail. Google also offered live demonstrations of its video chat feature, new camera interface, visually immersive games, and multitasking capabilities.

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Clarity on Apple's E-Reader Rule Runaround. Depressing Clarity!

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 1, 2011 at 11:45 am

John Paczkowski of All Things Digital got Apple to comment on the unexpected rejection of Sony’s Reader e-reading app for the iPhone. Spokesperson Trudy Miller told him:

We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines. We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase.

What Miller is saying is that it’s okay for developers of e-reading apps to provide access on the iPhone to e-books bought in the browser or elsewhere–but that they must also make it possible for users to buy those books using iOS’s in-app purchasing feature, which would let folks buy books in the app itself (and would give Apple a 30 percent cut of the profits).

As Paczkowski points out, this is a big change for e-book merchants, and one that might drive them crazy; they’ll now be forced to cut Apple in on book sales. But it’s conceivable, at least, that if they play ball and implement this feature, it’ll be a modest plus for consumers: They’ll be able to buy books without leaving their favorite iPhone e-reading apps.

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The End of the Zero-Sum Game

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 27, 2011 at 8:50 am

“It is not enough that I win. Everyone else must lose.”
–famous quote variously attributed to Attila the Hun, Genghis Kahn, Don King, Larry Ellison, and Ross Webster (the villain in Superman III)

Back in the 1990s, in the world of technology, it certainly seemed that if one company was a winner, everyone else was by definition a loser. It’s a concept known as the zero-sum game. And back then, nobody played it better than Microsoft.

When Office got popular, 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Harvard Graphics, and other programs fizzled. Internet Explorer surpassed 90 percent market share in the browser business, reducing Netscape Navigator to a has-been. Windows boomed, and the Mac’s market share went in only one direction: down.

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Google Number Porting Now Available

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 25, 2011 at 10:35 am

Google has rolled out the long-awaited option to port your existing wireless number to Google Voice. It costs $20, and while the porting itself might be straightforward, dealing with your wireless carrier–you’ll still need one, and will need a wireless number–may be complicated. And if you’re currently under contract, you may end up paying an early termination fee even if you continue service.

(I’m still figuring out whether I want to give this a try.)

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Microsoft Finds Source of Heavy Data Usage in Windows Phone 7

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 19, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Remember that mysterious Windows Phone 7 phantom data problem we reported on, which several of you seemed very skeptical about? Well, Microsoft has confirmed that it was indeed happening due to an apparent issue with a third party application. It won’t name names, but here’s what they had to say to Seattlepi.com’s Microsoft Blog:

We have determined that a third-party solution commonly accessed from Windows Phones is configured in a manner that potentially causes larger than expected data downloads. We are in contact with the third party to assist them in making the necessary fixes, and are also pursuing potential workarounds to address the configuration issue in case those are needed.

The company said only a “low single digit” percentage of WP7 users were affected, and that it believed the third-party app was the source of most of the complaints. It is still looking over reports to ensure that no other issues may be causing the bandwidth issues.

At this time, Microsoft is declining to identify the third-party responsible. Probably not a maj-or issue if the problem is affecting so little of the user base as the company claims, but still no solace to those that might be affected.

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Bump: iOS 4 Has 90% Adoption Rate, Android 2.3 Only .4%

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 18, 2011 at 1:38 pm

One of the biggest differences between Android and iOS continues to be the fact that by nature, iOS users continue to far outpace their Android counterparts in keeping their devices updated. According the makers of the popular app Bump, nearly 90 percent of its users are running iOS 4 or newer.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that the latest iOS release, 4.2.1, is used by about 53% of its users. That means over half of all iOS users are fully up to date. Now compare this to Android’s latest release — 2.3 — who only has a measly 0.4 percent adoption rate.

As MG Siegler pointed out over at TechCrunch, we should be fair and compare Android 2.2 and iOS 4 against one another, since Android 2.3 is currently available only on Google’s own Nexus S handset (although Android 2.2  has been out much longer than iOS 4) . Google doesn’t fare much better here: 52 percent.
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Microsoft Brings OneNote to the iPhone. Is the Rest of Office Next?

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 18, 2011 at 10:31 am

Microsoft apps for Apple’s iPhone aren’t new–there are already ones for Live Messenger and Bing, for instance–but it’s still noteworthy when the world’s biggest software company releases software for the phone made by its most venerable archrival. And today Microsoft is releasing a version of its OneNote note-taking app for the iPhone–the first time that any Microsoft Office program has arrived on iOS.

OneNote for iPhone syncs with OneNote’s other incarnations on Windows, on the Web, and on Windows Phone 7. (It does so using Microsoft’s SkyDrive online storage service, and you need a Live ID to use the app.) It’s easy to use and has basic note-taking features, including the ability to add photos and checklist items. It does feel more like a complement to OneNote’s other versions than a fully autonomous app–I don’t see any way to create a new notebook, for instance–and it certainly doesn’t compete with the 800-pound gorilla of note-taking, EverNote, in terms of features and supported platforms. But OneNote users who have iPhones should be pleased to have access to their jottings on the go, and it’s good to see the app arrive on the single most important smartphone platform. (Microsoft says it plans to update the software as time goes on.)

The most intriguing thing about OneNote for the iPhone is the fact that it brings a little bit of Microsoft Office to iOS for the first time. There have been rumors in the past that Microsoft was considering releasing a version of Office for the iPhone and/or iPad, but this is the first tangible proof that the company doesn’t think it’s self-destructive to put part of Office on an Apple mobile device rather than preserve it for Windows Phone 7, which includes mobile versions of OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook as standard equipment.

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