Hasta La Gadget!

We’d say this was getting silly but that would imply that it wasn’t already. Microsoft and Apple are still at each other’s throat over the latter’s trademark application for the term “App Store,” with Microsoft now bringing in a Dr. Ronald Butters, Professor Emeritus at Duke University and a man with a taste for hardcore semantics. He says the compound noun “app store” is perfectly generic in that it “does not merely describe the thing named, it is the thing named.” In a wildly geeky turn, he references the potential for someone discovering a use for masers and trying to trademark the term “maser store” in response, which would seem immediately and logically absurd. An app store, says the good doctor, is no more capable of being trademarked than a grocery store or a stationery store or a computer store.

Of course, as with most trademark disputes, what’s truly at stake here isn’t linguistics, but a big fat wad of consumer goodwill. Having previously been quite uncomfortable with the idea of buying additional software for his mobile phone, Joe Consumer has nowadays grown quite accustomed to dropping little chunks of change on smartphone apps, and the terminology that sets his mind at ease most readily is indeed “app store.” Preventing others from using that well established moniker would clearly be a significant competitive advantage for Apple and it’s pretty hard to argue with its contention that it’s responsible for generating the goodwill that sits behind it. Then again, we reckon Android’s Market, webOS’ admittedly small App Catalog, and other moves by the likes of RIM, Nokia and Microsoft itself with WP7, haven’t done the app store cause any harm either, so in purely ethical terms it still seems a little rich for Apple to be claiming the app store crown all to itself. As to the legal battle itself, it’s descending into quite amusing minutiae, but its outcome will be of great interest to most of the aforementioned mobile ecosystem purveyors.

Microsoft keeps gunning after Apple’s ‘generic’ App Store trademark, brings in a linguistics expert originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bach Nguyen’s handlebar lock is impossible to defeat

Bach Nguyen’s Handlebars concept is a lock built in to the handlebars of a bike. To use it, you press a couple buttons up on top of the bars, pull the two newly-released bars around the immovable object of your choice and push them back together, whereupon they lock into place. If you have ever collapsed and re-attached the handlebars on one of those aluminum micro-scooters, you have the general idea.

It’s utterly foolproof. As we all know, cable bike locks are notoriously impossible to cut, and there’s practically no chance of a bicycle thief slipping a small Allen wrench from his pocket and quickly unscrewing the handlebar stem.

The wheels are safe, too. After all, who would steal a wheel if they couldn’t have the rest of the bike, too?

I guess there may be one tiny problem, though, as pointed out in the comment on the Yanko Design post that brought this wonderful invention to light. “My front teeth are already hurting when I think about one of these handles coming loose when driving over a bumpy road.” says Eddd222. Ouch.

Handlebar Bike Lock [Yanko]

See Also:

• Hiplok Bike Lock Is Worn Like a Belt
• Knog Demonstrates Keyless Electronic Bike Lock
• Custom Bike Features Built-In U-Lock
• Photos: Tiny Smart Car Secured with Giant Bike-Lock
• Exploding Lock Marks Thieves, Ruins Bike

The vagabonds of Google’s Street View team have struck again, this time conquering classical French and Italian landmarks for their mothership’s immense pictorial collection. As of today, you’re able to drop your little yellow avatar in Google Maps right atop such famous locales as the Colosseum of Rome or Florence’s Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, whereupon you’ll be transported right to it (or, in the case of the Colosseum, inside it) in the same way as if they were any old street addresses. This follows, of course, Google’s introduction of an intriguing indoor version of Street View for some of the world’s most prestigious museums recently and continues the company’s trend of bringing the arts, in this case classical architecture, to a wider audience. We just wonder what reason said audience will have to ever step outside with all this splendor at its fingertips indoors.

Google Street View invades historic landmarks, makes it unnecessary for you to ever leave the house originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Motorola Atrix is one of two phones with disabled HSUPA.

After Texas resident Keith Geissler noticed his new Motorola Atrix wasn’t offering the fast “4G” download and upload speeds that AT&T promised, he filed a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, asking the wireless company to “uncap” his data connection.

AT&T’s response was surprising. While the company assured Geissler it “has not capped the upload speeds on the Atrix,” it did admit that the phone’s HSUPA capability — a key feature in increasing upload speeds on the Atrix as well as the new HTC Inspire 4G smartphone — will not be enabled until a later date.

That means all upload speeds on the Atrix and the Inspire will max out at around 300 Kbps, far below that of the 5.5+ Mbps speeds that HSUPA is capable of uploading. (Geissler wasn’t happy to hear any of this, and posted the exchange to an online message board focused on smartphones.)

In other words, it’s not a hardware issue. It’s AT&T itself, which isn’t ready to flip the switch to turn on “4G” networks, even though it’s already selling 4G phones. Is anyone surprised?

“The concept of 4G is a joke now,” Gartner Research VP Phil Redman told Wired.com. “At the highest level, it’s supposed to be a technology standard, but it’s nothing but marketing now. If and when 4G-standardized technology is actually decided upon and released, we’ve been inundated with this jargon for so long we may not even recognize it.”

The term “4G speed” seems open to interpretation. Since the International Telecommunications Union — the global authority on telecommunications- and broadband-industry standardization – revised its ruling on what defines 4G network speeds in December 2010, carriers have jumped on the opportunity to market many new smartphones as 4G-enabled. Their definitions have been liberal, to say the least.

For AT&T, part of “4G” compatibility involves having HSUPA speeds. AT&T has been mostly evasive as to why HSUPA has been disabled in the Atrix and HTC Inspire 4G smartphones. The company claims it is performing “the testing and preparations necessary” for users to enjoy the HSUPA capabilities when the function is turned on by phone update.

To add insult to injury to Android users expecting 4G speeds, many iOS counterpart devices using AT&T’s 3G network are indeed HSUPA-enabled.

“Not to twist the dagger that’s already in our backs on this one,” said one forum user at XDA Developers, “as many know, the iPad 2 came out today and guess what … HSUPA enabled.”

Also HSUPA ready: the iPhone 4, a device using AT&T’s 3G network.

So when can we actually expect 4G upload speeds from these “4G” phones? AT&T gave Wired.com a rough street date of next month.

“We will be turning HSUPA upload speeds on via a software update to the Motorola ATRIX 4G and HTC Inspire 4G planned for April,” a spokesman said. He also added that “the Samsung Infuse 4G will launch with HSUPA.”

AT&T isn’t the first to fudge facts on its data practices. In the weeks before the iPhone’s release on the Verizon network in February, the carrier published a document that said the top 5 percent of data users on the network may have their data speeds reduced “to ensure high-quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand.”

As Wired.com’s Brian X. Chen reported, “One of Verizon’s selling points for its version of the iPhone is that it would come with an unlimited data plan — a marked contrast to AT&T, which eliminated its unlimited data plans last year.” But when a company’s shifty data-throttling practices are “disclosed” in unpublicized PDF files, Chen’s assertion that “you just can’t trust wireless carriers” proves accurate.

AT&T obviously hasn’t claimed the lack of HSUPA-enabling in the two phones to be a data-throttling technique. But until we hear reasons beyond “network testing and preparation,” we won’t be so quick to believe them.

See Also:

• Ahead of iPhone Release, Verizon Throttles Network Speeds
• FCC Delays Net Neutrality Over Mobile, ‘Managed’ Services
• Verizon iPhone Shows You Can’t Win: Carriers Hold the Cards
• T-Mobile to Throttle Data Speeds After 5 GB Use
• AT&T Says Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans Will Work on iPad 2
• AT&T’s Data Limits Rein In Cloud-Based Media Services
• What AT&T’s Limited Data Plans Mean for You
• AT&T’s Limited Data: Should You Care? Vote in Our Poll
• AT&T Adds iPhone Tethering, Kills Unlimited Data for iPad, Smartphones
• AT&T Exposes Data on 100000 iPad 3G Owners
• AT&T Puts Broadband Users on Monthly Allowance

RIM's PlayBook will ship without the core functions that make a BlackBerry a BlackBerry. Photo: Charlie Sorrel

Oh, RIM! What are you doing? According to a leaked internal document, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will ship without native support for e-mail, contacts or messaging. To use any of these services, you’ll have to either hook up a BlackBerry handset, or access them through the web browser.

The document, a seven-page FAQ for the upcoming tablet, lays out the details. To use these core BlackBerry services you need to use “BlackBerry Bridge”, which displays the BlackBerry’s apps on the PlayBook’s screen. Here’s the full text from the relevant section:

Q: Will apps such as e-mail, contacts, calendar etc. be available natively on BlackBerry PlayBook?

The BlackBerry PlayBook can be used in conjunction with a BlackBerry smartphone or it can be used on its own (i.e. standalone).

The BlackBerry Bridge feature creates a secure Bluetooth link between a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphone allowing BlackBerry smartphone users to view and interact with the email, BBM and PIM apps on their BlackBerry smartphone using the larger BlackBerry PlayBook screen.

In addition, users can access their e-mail via the BlackBerry PlayBook’s web browser without any need for a BlackBerry smartphone.

In a future software update for the BlackBerry PlayBook, we will also provide native e-mail, calendar, and contact apps for those customers who prefer to have these apps directly on the tablet.

[Emphasis added]

Some might argue that this doesn’t matter, as a “future software update” will bring native apps. But what this document really says is, “We rushed it.” RIM is so desperate to get an iPad rival on the market that it is cutting corners. So many corners, in fact, that the PlayBook may just turn out to be shaped like a real Blackberry.

Let’s look at the evidence:

• The software development kit (SDK), which will allow developers to write native apps, isn’t yet finished.
• In order to bring what RIM’s CEO Jim Balsillie calls a “tonnage of apps” to the PlayBook at launch, RIM has added an emulator to run Android apps.
• The PlayBook will ship with Wi-Fi only, no 3G. To connect without Wi-Fi, you need to tether  a BlackBerry.
• RIM, whose business is built on messaging and communication apps, is shipping its tablet without messaging or communication apps.

Not enough? I got a chance to play — briefly — with the PlayBook at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and found it to be clunky and rather laggy. I tried the e-reader software Kobo, which will come pre-installed on the device. Kobo on other platforms is fast, slick and a pleasure to use.

On the PlayBook it was rather janky, and certainly not smooth. This may be due to the software being in beta. (Or not — I didn’t ask that question. It is also not a criticism of Kobo, which usually makes great apps.)

You can almost smell the desperation that has crept into RIM ever since the iPhone arrived on the scene. RIM went from making the best messaging devices on the planet to making the worst wannabe iDevices around. It started with the awful “touch” screen Storm and continues with the PlayBook — all products rushed to market before they’re finished.

If RIM wants to avoid going the same way as Palm, then it should stop trying to chase Apple and start making some new devices of its own. And it should maybe try to finish them before showing them off to the world.

Leaked BlackBerry PlayBook FAQ (.pdf)

BlackBerry PlayBook FAQs [Scribd. Thanks, AngryMonkeyGeek]

See Also:

• RIM Unveils Tethered Tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook
• Hands-On With the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet
• PlayBook Smokes iPad Browser in Blackberry Speed-Test Video
• Video: Adobe Air, Flash Demonstrated on RIM PlayBook Tablet
• Video: Blackberry Playbook Hands-On Demo