Hasta La Gadget!

A survey suggests a huge chunk of AT&T iPhone customers plan on defecting to Verizon, but that seems unrealistic.

Research group ChangeWave on Friday released results of a survey polling about 4,000 customers. Most notably, it found that 26 percent of AT&T iPhone customers plan to switch to Verizon, and 16 percent of all AT&T subscribers overall say they’ll switch to Verizon because of the Verizon iPhone.

ChangeWave adds that AT&T has made significant progress improving its network to decrease dropped-call rates, but it says that isn’t enough to prevent a mass exodus to Verizon.

“The findings suggest AT&T is now taking concrete steps to try to improve long-standing service issues,” ChangeWave said in its report. “But can it do so quickly enough to forestall large-scale defections to Verizon? Not according to our ChangeWave survey results.”

Ever since Apple and AT&T released the iPhone in 2007, tech observers have squabbled about the day Verizon would score the coveted handset. Verizon has consistently ranked higher than AT&T in customer-satisfaction surveys because customers found the network to be more reliable. Therefore, it’s easy to assume that a Verizon iPhone would result in a devastating blow to AT&T.

ChangeWave’s survey may back that idea, but it’s not that simple.

AT&T last year noted that 70 percent of its subscribers are on family plans and 40 percent are part of corporate plans. (There is some overlap between the two types of plans.) That means multiple devices are tied to these plans, and it would be difficult for them to transition to another network. Also, in a business scenario, it’s unlikely a corporation is going to switch all its employees to Verizon just because it now has the iPhone.

Add to that the fact that many AT&T iPhone customers are still tied to two-year contracts. To switch to Verizon, they’ll have to pay an early-termination fee and shovel up even more money to pay for a phone that they probably already have. In June 2010, AT&T increased the early-termination fee from $175 to $325.

Long story short, AT&T has made switching for many subscribers a pain in the butt, and that’s part of why we’re unlikely to see a big switch.

The one major feature that the Verizon iPhone has, which the AT&T iPhone doesn’t, is hotspotting — the ability to turn the handset into a Wi-Fi connection for multiple computers to connect to — and that doesn’t seem like a killer feature to make you switch. The latest iPhone beta software reveals that the hotspot feature is technically available for AT&T iPhones; now it’s up to AT&T to decide if it wants to support it. I’m guessing AT&T will in order to compete.

The one major feature that the Verizon iPhone doesn’t have that the AT&T iPhone does, is the ability to simultaneously use data and voice. So if you’re on the phone, you can’t switch to the Yelp app to look up an address, for example, and then return to the call. That’s a limitation of Verizon’s CDMA network, and for some, that will be a big minus.

Suddenly the prospect of switching to Verizon doesn’t sound so appealing, and for many iPhone customers it probably won’t be worth the effort and money.

As a few other tech observers have pointed out, the Verizon iPhone poses more of a threat against Android phones on Verizon than it does to AT&T. Prior to the Verizon iPhone launch, an early survey suggested that a substantial number of current Verizon customers would switch to an iPhone.

That seems more believable, because I can’t name a single person who voluntarily switched to Verizon because of Android, but I can name several people who switched to AT&T just for the iPhone.

Photo: Sam Gustin/Wired.com

Chart: ChangeWave

See Also:

• Jon Stewart Celebrates New Verizon iPhone ‘Freedom’
• Verizon iPhone’s Impact on Google’s Android: How Bad?
• Verizon Wireless Finally Gets Apple’s iPhone
• Verizon or AT&T: Which Will Deliver the Best iPhone Experience …

For whatever reason, Apple has a thing with ten billion. The outfit served up its ten billionth iTune right around this time last year, and more importantly, served its one billionth app in April of 2009. In just 1.5 years, the company has seen that figure soar nearly tenfold, which is impressive no matter how you slice it. Of course, we’re quite curious to know if this includes duplicate downloads, app updates and just free or paid apps, but regardless, there’s no question that Cupertino (and quite a few developers) are raking it in. Of course, the explosion of the iPad certainly helped boost the download frequency, and if we had to guess, we’d say it’ll take even less time to double up this milestone. You know, once next month happens. Oh, and if you get lucky enough, you could score a $10,000 iTunes gift card if you just so happen to download the ten billionth app — make sure it’s a good one.

[Thanks, Ali]

Apple nears ten billion downloads in App Store, should hit it without Verizon’s help originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading GameBoy Advance Phone caught in the wild (by the guy who built it)

GameBoy Advance Phone caught in the wild (by the guy who built it) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Photo equipment retailer B&H has leaked on its online store the HX9V and HX100V, complete with specifications and pictures of one shooter.

This article was written on May 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

Yesterday at Where 2.0, Google made the announcement that they were takin’ maps to the streets with their new street view functionality.  This new feature seemed to take all the spotlight and hardly any attention was given to “Mapplets” which was also announced.

I think Mapplets will end up being more useful that you might think.  They’re mini-webpages served inside an IFrame within Google Maps site that will allow users to create their own mapping mash-ups. A variety of different programming languages are put to use in the mini-webpages including Javascript, Flash, and HTML. From a directory of offerings, users will be able to select the content (gadgets) that they want included.

Give Mapplets a try:

To try out Mapplets, go here. You’ll notice that you’re on a “Mapplets” tab.  On that page, click “browse content.” This is where you’ll find all of the options that you have to choose from. 

I selected three different “gadgets” that I wanted to include:

• Gas Prices from gasbuddy.com
• Weather Bug
• Movie Showtimes

There’s a variety of content that you can add, and multiple mashups can appear on one page. Once you’ve made your selections, you can go back to Google Maps to put them to good use.

The image below shows what my map looked like when I checked that I only wanted to display Gas Prices. Gas Prices on my map are marked with a green marker. By clicking on the marker it will display the address for the gas station, and what the gas price is.

In the image above, I selected only to display gas prices, however, I could have also selected Weather bug, and Movie Showtimes, and it would have displayed all of the information on my map with each item color-coded accordingly. All it takes is a simple check-mark to activate or de-activate the content.

Marketing Opportunities?

This really gives developers the chance to get creative with their own Mapplets.  And because anybody can create a Mapplet, I could see retailers and other companies creating one to market themselves. For example, it could be used to point out an awesome sale at a shoe store, or cheap burgers at a restaurant.  Those loyal customers who decided to select the store or restaurant gadget would have a heads-up on when to stop in for the best deals.

The list of content options will only continue to get longer. Besides the gadgets that I included, there’s a list of 23 different options (here) currently.I never imagined we’d see maps getting as customized and advanced as they have, and I can only imagine what’s coming next.

Info for developers

Source: Mashable

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