All Articles Tagged Wireless

Here’s something that will make your blood peculate. AT&T Senior VP, James W. Cicconi, says the company recently began working with movie studios and record labels to develop anti-piracy technology targeting offenders. Now, I’m all for copyright protection, in fact I am one of the few sick bastards that actually supports DRM (in tolerable form), but I draw the line when my privacy is sacrificed. I don’t consume or traffic in narcotics, but that doesn’t mean I would allow the police to enter my domicile every night to check under my bed for drugs.

In a perfect world, government would step in to intercede on our behalf. But in reality Uncle Sam will simply want a piece of the action. sigh

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Some industrious haxor developer has created an interesting yet simple demo web application, highlighting what is possible via iPhone’s Safari browser. I still have very mixed feelings about this framework. Maybe I’ve been hanging around PDAs too long, but I prefer system-native applications as apposed to the Web 2.0 approach.

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Jibi from The Boy Genius Report expresses his doubts that iPhone can sustain long term growth due to inherent limitations like a lack of third party apps, limited corporate a adoption, etc. The usual complaints.

The Apple iPhone will have early success; Apple and AT&T have all but ensured this fact. It’s rare that Apple has failed with any product launch since the re-crowning of Steve Jobs and the first generation iMac. However, Apple has also been known to release rather faulty first generation products that tend to get better in the second and third and beyond generations – they never get it ‘right’ in the first go-round. Until the next generation iPhone is released, or until third-party application development and porting is opened up to allow integration within the messaging infrastructures of Corporate America, not web-based applications, do not expect to see long-term growth and sales figures to be anything to marvel about (although failed expectations may be mentioned in conversation).

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Om Malik outlines five points about the iPhone that could have a dramatic impact on the wireless business.

• A true web applications platform for the mobile
• Break the Wireless Walled Gardens
• Shift of control to the customers
• Slow demise of subsidized, boring phones filled with bloat ware
• Keep it simple or else

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A ban on Qualcomm chips could have upside effect on iPhone sales. Or so the logic goes.

The order will not affect the introduction of Apple Inc.’s iPhone June 29. AT&T Inc. has exclusive rights to carry the iPhone, and the gadget’s first version uses the carrier’s EDGE network, which is not covered by the ITC ruling. Apple doesn’t need a lift from its competitors’ woes anyway, said Michael King, an analyst at Gartner Inc. technology research firm. “There so much hype around the iPhone that I don’t think they will be able to produce enough to meet demand, so this won’t help much,” he said.

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AT&T has begun displaying publicly displaying iPhone banners announcing the device’s impending launch date.

Source: MacRumors

Robb Dunewood over at RIMarkable poses the question..

Before I became a die-hard BlackBerry user I was a die-hard Windows Mobile (Pocket PC at the time) user. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever be interested in a device like the BlackBerry, yet, RIMarkable is about to enter into its third year of existence. Truth be told, I will more than likely get an iPhone shortly after it comes out but it will be in addition to my BlackBerry. If I remember correctly, however, my first BlackBerry was in addition to my Windows Mobile device.

And so it begins. Apple’s first rival rears is ugly head. Well, not ugly. Just not as well designed or well implemented. This is HTC’s answer to iPhone and its gesture-based navigation. Dubbed the “Touch” (cute), this device offers an ingenious rotating UI layered on top of Windows Mobile.

What bothers me about this device isn’t so much that it’s a blatant ripoff of iPhone, and even marketing panache ala Apple. No, I don’t like the fact it takes something good; namely HTC’s custom UI, and layers it over something that wasn’t designed to operate like the iPhone – Windows Mobile. Like lipstick on a pig, this device fails to even remotely mimic the iPhone user experience.

That said, I give HTC a B+ for its effort.

C|Net UK chats up the coming apocalypse sparked by iPhone shortages.

Sales representatives also said they are expecting big crowds for the launch, many of whom are likely to camp out overnight in front of stores to make sure they are one of the first to get the new phone. “If I were you, I’d probably try going to some little store in New Jersey that nobody knows about,” the Times Square representative said. Even Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, suggested to technology pundit Arianna Huffington that she go to an AT&T store where lines might be shorter than at Apple’s stores.

I’m scared. Someone hold my hand.

If there is one thing I cannot tolerate it’s a technology company playing with my emotions by promising one thing and delivering another. During the keynote, Steve Jobs clearly indicated the iPhone will not have 3G support built-in, meaning it will not poses UMTS or HSDPA technology. And yet John Markoff of the New York Times is claiming that Apple will provide a firmware upgrade that will unlock this hidden functionality.

Hint to Mr. Markoff 3G is a hardware feature, not software. Meaning that it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a firmware upgrade to add 3G capability to iPhone if the underlying hardware that enables it is missing. Smacks John on forehead

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