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Google Chrome 4: Yes, it's fast, but is it usable?
As Betanews readers have responded to our stories about Chrome's JavaScript superiority...Does that mean we'd actually use this browser? Well...
Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones
The lower-priced Eris joins the Droid, while the Chocolate gets a touchscreen and more music playback.
Early sales figures for Windows 7 nicely high, but do we know why?
Fans of triple-digit surges in figures quoted by Betanews will love this one, as it appears Microsoft rediscovered how to pull off a software launch.
Myka announces its latest Linux-based 'net top box'
Myka's ION brings Boxee, XMBC, and much more to HDTVs.
What hath Mac wrought? A remembrance after a quarter-century
The reason there's a Macintosh today is not because of some brilliant flash of engineering genius, but because Apple had the audacity to learn from its mistakes.
Early build of Moblin 2.1 improves connectivity, but not device support
The Linux Foundation's Atom-centric OS yesterday received a major overhaul with the project release of Moblin 2.1 for netbooks and nettops.
The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing
There's actually a country where Apple's device is not a godsend, where sales can be measured in the dozens.
New European counterpart to FCC will ensure 'a more neutral net'
Late Thursday night, the ruling telecom administrators of the EU's member nations signed away their final authority to a new entity overseen by the EC.
Sophos study suggests Windows 7 UAC's default setting is self-defeating
Without any anti-virus installed, a Sophos test showed, User Account Control was only capable of thwarting just one malware package out of ten samples chosen.
Indiscreet tweet trips awareness of Web SSL vulnerability
A group of high-level security engineers had been making progress on thwarting a low-level threat to the Web, until somebody blurted it all out on Twitter.
The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing
By Richard Adhikari, MacNewsWorld on November 6, 2009, 10:30 AM
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The iPhone went on sale last week in China, and it landed more or less with a thud. Cupertino's carrier partner in that country, China Unicom, announced on Tuesday that only 5,000 customers had purchased the phone thus far. At this rate, the handset may have trouble meeting sales expectations. China Unicom had pledged to sell 1 million iPhones per year.
Price could be one deterrent -- the iPhone starts at around the equivalent of USD$730. Add in monthly subscriber fees, and you're soon looking at a rather pricey phone in a country where the average income of urban workers in 2008 was less than $4,300.
Continue reading The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing...
Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones
By Jacqueline Emigh on November 5, 2009, 7:07 PM
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In New York City today, Verizon Wireless rolled out new additions to its expanding Android and LG Chocolate phone families, while also delivering sneak previews of a new, consumer-friendly ruggedized phone called the Casio G'zOne Brigade (shown above).
Like its previously announced top-of-the-line Android phone, known simply as the Droid, the less expensive Droid Eris will be available for the first time in Verizon stores tomorrow -- which is also when pricing will be revealed.
Continue reading Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones...
How RIM can avoid a premature endgame for BlackBerry
By Carmi Levy on November 5, 2009, 12:23 PM
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Once not so long ago, if you wanted bulletproof e-mail on a mobile device, you bought a BlackBerry. Research In Motion, the company that practically defined wireless messaging a decade ago, has done quite nicely for itself since then, garnering over 56% of the market for smartphones in the US and about 20% of the overall wireless handset market that includes smartphones as well as conventional feature phones. Its end-to-end encryption and still-unique service paradigm that routes messaging traffic through secure Network Operations Centers further endeared the platform to enterprise buyers, even as the company was successfully pushing the franchise into the consumer space.
Unfortunately for RIM, nothing stays the same in the increasingly competitive wireless market. The BlackBerry is no longer a market of one, and many of the features that defined the platform -- including push e-mail and enterprise-class security -- are no longer unique. Worse, the critical feature set for a modern smartphone has expanded to include rich Web access, broad application availability, and an integrated, Web services-aware operating system. It's no secret that the BlackBerry platform lags in all of these areas with its fine-for-the-1990s browser, relatively paltry app ecosystem, and an OS that despite regular incremental updates still betrays its decade-old roots.
Continue reading How RIM can avoid a premature endgame for BlackBerry...
The new face of Android: No face
By Tim Conneally on November 3, 2009, 12:03 PM
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Early this morning, Sony Ericsson took the wraps off of its first Android-based handset, the 1 GHz Snapdragon-powered Xperia X10. With a huge 4" touchscreen, an 8.1 megapixel camera and the elegant custom user interface named "Rachael," Sony Ericsson moves the Android platform a step further by giving it almost no mention in announcements and commercials.
Sony Ericsson mentions the Android Market, and notes in the spec sheet that the operating system is Android Donut 1.6, but otherwise it does not ride the point, and strives to make the device stand out as a distinct product.
With beefed up 3G, more networks to get 'Droid'
By Tim Conneally on November 2, 2009, 3:46 PM
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Here in the US, excitement has been high over Verizon's first Android handset, the Motorola Droid; so high, in fact, that it has actually begun to make an appreciable dent in iPhone favoritism.
This is partially due to the fact that a large number of iPhone users were Verizon customers before they got the iPhone, and still consider Verizon's wireless network to be superior to AT&T's. Verizon's "There's a map for that" advertising campaign has also added to the company's reputation for having a more robust network than AT&T.
Continue reading With beefed up 3G, more networks to get 'Droid'...
Sprint and Clearwire's 2009 WiMAX rollout almost complete
By Tim Conneally on November 2, 2009, 12:17 PM
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Clearwire and Sprint have been working hard to complete the planned WiMAX network deployment for 2009, and with the addition of a handful of new major markets this week, the project has nearly fulfilled its promises for the year.
Today, Sprint announced it has launched WiMAX services in the North Carolina cities Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point and Cary; in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; and in Chicago, Illinois.
Continue reading Sprint and Clearwire's 2009 WiMAX rollout almost complete...
Nokia's N-Gage can't survive against iPhone, will be shut down
By Tim Conneally on October 30, 2009, 2:36 PM
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According to Reuters today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia will reportedly be shutting down its N-Gage gaming service. The shutdown will come six years after the mobile phone and gaming system hybrid concept debuted and was quickly retired; and nearly four years after it was re-invented as a part of Nokia's smartphone ecosystem, and later integrated with the Ovi platform.
Nokia intends to stop publishing new N-Gage titles and eventually wind down the service by the end of next year. Games will still be a major part of the Ovi platform, available in the Ovi Store under store.ovi.com/games, but the dedicated N-Gage brand is finally being scuttled.
Continue reading Nokia's N-Gage can't survive against iPhone, will be shut down...
Sprint quietly locks down Xohm WiMAX network while it awaits Clear takeover
By Tim Conneally on October 29, 2009, 10:12 PM
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Without any notice to current customers with or those early adopters with dormant accounts, Sprint has locked down the Baltimore Xohm WiMAX network and is not letting inactive hardware be turned back on to allow free upgrades to Clear hardware.
Sprint's Xohm network was one of the first two WiMAX deployments in the United States. We watched with excitement as the towers were raised in Baltimore and the ceremonial ribbon was cut on the new high speed wireless network.
Continue reading Sprint quietly locks down Xohm WiMAX network while it awaits Clear takeover...
Non-exclusive iPhones: Has Verizon waited too long?
By Carmi Levy on October 29, 2009, 5:08 PM
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I've never been a fan of exclusive deals between handset manufacturers and wireless carriers. I understand why they appeal to the Apples and the AT&Ts of the world in the first place, but it ticks me off that sweet deals like this always seem to leave consumers out in the cold. They limit choice and competition, which tends to keep prices artificially high for longer than they should, and they make it easier for carriers to maintain the kind of old, customer-unfriendly practices that have long stained the industry.
When a given gotta-have-it device is available only through one carrier, consumers are forced to make a Hobson's Choice in that they can choose by device, or by carrier, but not both. And if they dislike the exclusive carrier for any reason, they either hold their noses and sign, or learn to live with another carrier's second-rate hardware.
Continue reading Non-exclusive iPhones: Has Verizon waited too long?...
Verizon's Droid claims 10,000 apps, graphics co-processor, and 'a map for that'
By Jacqueline Emigh on October 29, 2009, 4:18 PM
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At a sneak preview in New York City on Thursday night, execs from Verizon Wireless, Motorola, and Google gave reporters from Betanews and elsewhere a point-by-point illustration, supported by a few of Android's 10,000-plus apps. They also showed off some features not even mentioned in Verizon's anti-iPhone marketing blitz: a stellar 3.7-inch high res display, turn-by-turn GPS voice navigation with Google Latitude and Street Views, and innovative peripherals like a car mount and multimedia station.
In a scathing new ad campaign, Verizon takes aim at everything Apple's rival iPhone doesn't do. "iDon't have a real keyboard," according to an ad. "iDon't run simultaneous apps," and so on, and so forth.
Continue reading Verizon's Droid claims 10,000 apps, graphics co-processor, and 'a map for that'...
Motorola and Verizon unveil the Droid, Google Maps navigation
By Tim Conneally on October 28, 2009, 12:00 PM
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After a long period of rumors, leaks and teaser marketing campaigns, Verizon and Motorola have officially announced Droid, Verizon's first Android smartphone, and the first Android device running Eclair. It will be available on Friday, November 6, for $199 with a two year contract and mail-in rebate.
Motorola's Contribution:
Continue reading Motorola and Verizon unveil the Droid, Google Maps navigation...
Nokia invokes a 'NATO defense' strategy against Apple's iPhone
By Scott M. Fulton, III on October 27, 2009, 2:42 PM
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The usual reason commonly given for the creation of technology standards is to enable a more open, seamless process for licensing and adoption. But in its lawsuit filed last week against iPhone maker Apple, Nokia is attempting a rather interesting spin on this definition, a spin which may very well reflect reality: It argues that standards are broadly licensed in order to increase the size of the market which those standards can address.
As a result, when a transgression against the standard comes about -- for instance, by way of failure to pay royalties -- the rights holders throughout the market enabled by that standard, have a duty to come to its defense. An attack against one, in other words, is an attack against the whole portfolio.
Continue reading Nokia invokes a 'NATO defense' strategy against Apple's iPhone...
Dual Verizon CEOs deftly dance on both sides of net neutrality
By Scott M. Fulton, III on October 22, 2009, 5:58 PM
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At about the same time Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam was preparing to issue a joint statement with Google, of all companies, signaling his company's support of the FCC at least opening up the floor to debate on proposed net neutrality legislation, Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO of parent company Verizon Communications, told attendees at the Supercomm conference in Chicago (as covered by CNET's Marguerite Reardon) that regulating net neutrality itself is "a mistake."
While bloggers noticing McAdam's signature alongside that of Google CEO Eric Schmidt took it to mean that Verizon had actually switched sides on the issue (again, folks, it's a good idea to read the whole story), it's clear that the intent of the joint statement was to demonstrate the company's willingness to come to the table and debate the issue civilly, and to listen to Google's side of the argument as well. But McAdam's fingerprints were all over sentence #2, which acknowledges that his company still disputes "whether mobile networks should even be part of the discussion" -- in other words, whether the FCC has the right to use net neutrality as a springboard for regulating Internet commerce and transactions.
Continue reading Dual Verizon CEOs deftly dance on both sides of net neutrality...
FCC advances net neutrality rules for wireless carriers
By Tim Conneally on October 22, 2009, 1:05 PM
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Today, the Federal Communications Commission moved forward with the hotly debated Net Neutrality policy revision, and opened the floor for public comment on the updated framework for a "free and open Internet" based on the "Four Freedoms" laid down in 2005 by former FCC Commissioner Michael Powell.
"The goal is and must remain without compromise preserving a free and open Internet," Commissioner Julius Genachowski said this morning. "Any rules we adopt must preserve our freedom to connect, to communicate, and to create that is the wonder of the open Internet. Each and every user of the Internet must have access to an unlimited online universe of ideas and commerce. Internet users should always have the final say about their online experience, whether it's the software, applications or services they choose, or the networks and hardware they use to connect to the Internet."
Continue reading FCC advances net neutrality rules for wireless carriers...
Nokia sues Apple, claims iPhone is stealing its innovations
By Tim Conneally on October 22, 2009, 11:31 AM
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This is no patent troll lawsuit. This is the world's largest mobile phone maker calling out one of the most beloved devices of recent history on ten counts of patent infringement.
The patents that Nokia cited in its complaint to the Delaware District Court today are related to wireless standard compatibility, speech coding and wireless data, as well as security and encryption. Nokia says it has licensed these patents out to more than 40 other companies and that every model of iPhone since the device's introduction in 2007 has infringed on them.
Continue reading Nokia sues Apple, claims iPhone is stealing its innovations...
RIM tries a do-over of 2009 for next year
By Tim Conneally on October 21, 2009, 11:18 AM
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This month, Canadian smartphone leader Research in Motion has debuted two new handset "sequels," which keep the name and form factor of their 2008 forebears, but update the experience slightly with minor upgrades. Last week, RIM unveiled the Storm 2, which improved upon the original Storm's Surepress touchscreen, and equipped it with Wi-Fi.
Today RIM has debuted the Bold 9700, the updated version of the Bold 9000 which had a rather problematic launch in 2008 with battery overheating issues, purported software problems, and delays related to AT&T's 3G network.
Continue reading RIM tries a do-over of 2009 for next year...
Verizon touts Android's superiority over iPhone
By Tim Conneally on October 19, 2009, 2:23 PM
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Every major iteration of Android is named after a pastry (Cupcake, Donut, etc.), and whenever the latest version is being worked on, a giant foam rendition of that pastry is planted on the lawn of Google's headquarters. Last week, a giant eclair, signifying the impending drop of Android 2.0, was unveiled.
This is normally a pretty big event in and of itself, but it happened on the same day that Google had its quarterly earnings call, and CEO Eric Schmidt made the bold statement that "Android adoption is about to explode," without providing too much more detail.
Continue reading Verizon touts Android's superiority over iPhone...
US broadcast industry group finally standardizes mobile digital television
By Tim Conneally on October 16, 2009, 1:00 PM
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Last night, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) unanimously agreed on the final mobile broadcast TV standard, the ATSC A/153 Mobile DTV Vestigial Side Band (VSB). This standard lets broadcasters take a portion of their existing DTV band and rebroadcast it as a shortwave sideband for mobile consumption.
But even in places where mobile broadcast television is popular, such as South Korea, it still isn't that popular. In the United States, where the average household watches more than 8 hours of television per day, mobile television remains as unpopular as ever.
Continue reading US broadcast industry group finally standardizes mobile digital television...
Verizon victory: Royalties not due every time the phone rings
By Scott M. Fulton, III on October 15, 2009, 3:43 PM
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The part of the movie It's a Wonderful Life that always brought a tear to my grandmother's eye was at the end, where little Zuzu hears a bell ring on the Christmas tree, and pronounces that an angel has just gotten his wings. If a district court had found in favor of ASCAP, the nation's leading performers' rights organization (PRO), it's quite possible that if that bell had sounded like a particular song, someone somewhere might have been owed change.
The question at hand was whether performers' royalties -- the same share of proceeds that rights holders get whenever you play a song on Last.fm or Pandora -- were owed to the performers of the music you hear in wireless ringtones. If so, wireless services everywhere could owe a ton of money. And ASCAP may never have thought so in the first place had Cellco Partnership (a company doing business on behalf of Verizon Wireless) hadn't made an application last January for a blanket license -- in other words, if Cellco hadn't been willing to pay a little something for those rights in the first place.
Continue reading Verizon victory: Royalties not due every time the phone rings...
BlackBerry Storm 2 vs. BlackBerry Storm: The complete specs
By Tim Conneally on October 15, 2009, 12:17 PM
9 Comments
As expected, Research in Motion today released the specs for the BlackBerry Storm 2 (9550), and it really does appear to be mostly the same as its predecessor, except with crucial improvements in the areas that disappointed users most.
BlackBerry Storm 2 (9550)BlackBerry Storm (9530)Size4.43" x 2.45" x .55"4.43" x 2.45" x .55"Display3.25" (480 x 360) capacitive multitouch/gestural 3.25" (480 x 360) capacitive touchMemory256 MB Flash, 2 GB on-board storage125MB Flash, (192 MB RAM), 1 GB on-board storageNetwork SupportDual Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev A., Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, single band UMTS/HSPADual Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev A., Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, single band UMTS/HSPAConnectivity802.11b/g/d/i, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR1) Integrated GPS with A-GPS CapabilitiesBluetooth 2.0, Standalone GPS, A-GPSBattery1400 mAhr Li-Ion, 5-6 hours of talk time, 11.2-12.7 days of standby time1400 mAhr Li-Ion, 6 hours talk time, 15 days of standby timeImaging3.2 MP Video/ 2x zoom AF camera with flash and image stabilization 3.2 MP Video/ 2x zoom AF camera with flashWeight
Continue reading BlackBerry Storm 2 vs. BlackBerry Storm: The complete specs...
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