Hasta La Gadget!

It would appear that AT&T isn’t the only carrier in the world suffering from a horrible and nagging case of the iPhones. In an interview with the Financial Times, O2 head Ronan Dunne apologized to customers for the poor performance the network has been experiencing since the introduction of the iPhone 3GS to its airwaves this summer. Just as US customers (particularly those in dense, urban areas) have learned to struggle through dropped calls, the inability to make or receive calls, or weak data connections, our brethren on the other side of the pond have felt a similar sting. Says Dunne, “Where we haven’t met our own high standards then there’s no question, we apologise to customers for that fact,” adding that the carrier had fixes at the ready and that the issues would be “more than addressed” shortly. Unlike the widespread problems here, the O2 mess seems to be relegated largely to London, though it’s curious to know that AT&T isn’t alone in being hamstrung by a network clearly not prepared for the onslaught of data being pushed up and down its virtual pipes. Also unlike the AT&T situation is the fact that O2 has solutions in mind (including the installation of 200 additional mobile base stations in London), and they’re clearly taking ownership of the situation. Ahem, Ralph.

Update: AT&T responded and let us know they had fixes underway too. Here’s an outline of forthcoming changes the carrier says it’s making.

• We are nearly doubling the wireless spectrum serving 3G customers in hundreds of markets across the country, using high-quality 850 MHz spectrum. This additional spectrum expands overall network capacity and improves in-building reception.
• We are adding about 2,000 new cell sites, expanding service to new cities and improving coverage in other areas.
• We’re adding about 100,000 new backhaul connections, which add critical capacity between cell sites and the global IP backbone network.
• We’re enabling widespread access to our Wi-Fi network – the largest in the country with more than 20,000 hotspots in all 50 states – allowing them to take advantage of the best available AT&T mobile broadband connection.
• We’re rolling out even faster 3G speeds with deployment of HSPA 7.2 technology, with initial availability in six markets planned by the end of the year.

iPhone reception issues plague O2… too (updated with AT&T’s response) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading iPhone nabs 46 percent of Japanese smartphone market, the tiny Japanese smartphone market

iPhone nabs 46 percent of Japanese smartphone market, the tiny Japanese smartphone market originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“You know, that pallet of overpriced skin cream isn’t going to stock itself. Maybe if you’d stop playing Bingo Bonanza you’d have done that already. Oh, you say you’re scanning their RFIDs to add them to our system? Whatever, you’re fired.” It’s a scenario we see playing itself out at warehouses all around the world thanks to the iCarte from Wireless Dynamics, a device enabling iPods and iPhones to read from and write to RFID tags. It clips on the bottom and sports a mini-USB port so that you can still sync, but can also use the phone’s wireless mechanisms to communicate with various systems, updating inventory or tracking purchases. As far as we know it will not prevent your phone from playing games, but we won’t tell your boss about that. Nor will we tell him how much these will cost or when he can order them, since we don’t know ourselves.

Update: Wireless Dynamics asked that we clarify that this device is indeed consumer-oriented, able to scan the RFID tags in your credit cards, transport badges, and probably even that chip you had implanted into your dog’s head. So, this means you would be able to make MasterCard PayPass and similar RFID transactions without even reaching for your wallet — which sounds as convenient as it does disconcerting. Being able to verify that your dog hasn’t been replaced by an evil clone while you were at work? Priceless.

Wireless Dynamics brings the joys of inventory management to the iPhone with the iCarte RFID reader originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How many apps do you have on your iPhone? Yeah, we figured it was a lot. Being able to re-arrange items now is mighty helpful, but not so helpful as this little hack from Steve Troughton-Smith that adds Exposé-like functionality to the mix. Just press the Home button and up pops a view of all the application pages; tap one and you’re taken straight there, as shown in the video after the break. Nice and simple — and at this point not available even to jailbroken handsets. We’re sure that’ll change soon, but it’s anybody’s guess if or when Apple will add something like this to the official OS. Yet another reason to go ahead and roll your own.

Continue reading Jailbroken iPhone gets Expose-like view, you retail users just keep on scrollin’ (video)

Filed under: Cellphones

Jailbroken iPhone gets Expose-like view, you retail users just keep on scrollin’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Market research firm Interpret recently made some discoveries about public perception of smartphones that should shock, surprise, and amaze you. The just released report, dubbed “Signature Smartphones: Gaining Mindshare in Order to Gain Market Share,” reveals that despite being massively disadvantaged in the marketplace, Palm managed to nab a huge chunk of mindshare with the Pre — in fact, the report suggests that the Pre is number two only to the iPhone 3GS in the metric. The study looks at the driving factors behind purchaser’s decisions to buy a smartphone, narrowing down the list to three major components: belief that the phone is “smart,” belief that the phone is “hip / cool,” and belief that the phone will make them more productive. Rating a swath of phones (BlackBerry Curve and Storm, G1, iPhone), the report found that only the iPhone and Pre balanced the three factors in a way in which consumers felt the higher price tags were warranted. More to the point, only the Pre and the iPhone 3GS managed to strike that balance at all; offerings such as the two BlackBerrys were lopsided. There’s not much more meat to the study, though it does shed some interesting light on just how Palm managed to squeeze its way back into the limelight (of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a product that’s actually kind of cool). Check out the whole PDF for yourself over at that read link.

Disclosure: Engadget columnist Michael Gartenberg is an employee of Interpret, and worked on the study cited above.

Filed under: Cellphones

New study says Palm Pre second only to iPhone 3GS in mindshare originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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