Mar 16

Verizon May Have 10 Percent of U.S. iPhone Market

Posted in: Apple, att, iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili, verizon

Apple's iPhone 4 became available on the Verizon network in February. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The iPhone appears to be gaining serious momentum on the Verizon network after just one month on the market.

About 10 percent of iPhone customers in the United States could be on Verizon, according to estimates by mobile advertisement firm Chitika.

If that estimate is accurate, it signifies rapid growth of the iPhone on Verizon. The Verizon iPhone went on sale online Feb. 3 for pre-orders, and the handset hit stores Feb. 10, ending AT&T’s exclusive partnership with Apple.

“For Verizon to pick up that big of a share of iPhone users in about a month is impressive, and doesn’t bode particularly well for AT&T,” Chitika said in a blog post.

Chitika has been using a live tracker to monitor web usage of iPhones on the Verizon and AT&T networks, based on activity of websites running ads on Chitika’s network.

The live tracker on Tuesday peaked at 12.7 percent of iPhones surfing the web on the Verizon network. As of Wednesday morning, the tracker shows 9.4 percent of iPhones are on Verizon. The results are based on 700,000 impressions from Chitika’s network.

“The spike is really interesting to me,” said Daniel Ruby, research director of Chitika, in an e-mail to Wired.com. “I’m trying to figure out if it’s indicative of a different usage pattern between AT&T and Verizon users, or if it was just a spike in Verizon usage across our network.”

Though Chitika believes the data presents a problem for AT&T, AT&T has said it’s not worried about iPhone customers switching over to Verizon.

AT&T previously told investors that it was confident iPhone profits would remain strong because many customers were on family plans and corporate plans, which would make it difficult to transition to a different network.

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Mar 14

Nokia Windows Phone Handsets Won’t Be Available Until 2012

Posted in: nokia, Phones, symbian, Today's Chili, Windows, windows phone, windows phone 7

A stylish, colorful Nokia Windows Phone concept

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a Windows-powered Nokia.

According to the managing director of Nokia India, D. Shivakumar, Nokia is working on a 12 month timeline to release its first set of Windows Phone smartphones.

A 2012 release date likely means that the handsets would run the next version of Windows Phone 7, aka Mango, which is supposed to be made available to manufacturers in late 2011.

According to Shivakumar, the Nokia-Microsoft partnership should bring new life to the fledgling smartphone OS, which made up only 3% of total wordwide smartphone sales at the end of 2010. Nokia’s flailing Symbian smartphones held a strong 31% of the global market that same quarter.

“Microsoft has been looking for a strong hardware partner, but they have been on phones [platforms] which have not given them that strength. With Nokia, suddenly the scales are huge.”

In February, Nokia announced it would be teaming up with Microsoft to “transform the company.” The move meant that Nokia would be abandoning Symbian in favor of Windows Phone 7 and future Windows Phone installments, much to the chagrin of its developers.

Nokia still plans to release about 20 Symbian smartphones in 2011 out of the 40-50 total new models it’ll be launching.

The Finnish company plans to follow a two-year time frame to complete the transition to Windows Phone-only handsets.

In the mean time, Nokia has redirected its primary business strategy to reach the 3.2 billion people who don’t currently own mobile phones, and the other nearly 3 million who can’t or don’t access the Internet on their devices, while Apple and other smartphone manufacturers vie for the high-end spectrum of tech power users.

Nokia’s First Windows Phone to be Released in a Year [DNA via Slashgear]


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Mar 14

Phil Schiller: “White iPhone Will Be Available This Spring”

Posted in: iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili

Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller tweets about the elusive white iPhone

“Tweeting Phil Schiller” is the new “emailing Steve Jobs.” When 16-year-old from Albuquerque, New Mexico wanted to know if the mythical white iPhone would ever emerge into the world, he Tweeted Apple’s product marketing boss: “@pschiller how do i get a white iphone?”

The reply? “@airickanderson Hi Eric. The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!).” Given that most people in the U.S consider that spring begins on March 21st, then Apple has until has until June 21st to deliver. Further, June is the month when Apple traditionally releases new a iPhone.

Could it be that there will be no white iPhone 4, but instead a white iPhone 5? After all, neither tweet mentions model number. On the other hand, Apple does like to dominate the news, and manages to come up with some buzz-worthy announcement every few weeks. Any problems with white hardware have clearly been fixes, as proven by the white iPad, so maybe we’ll get one in the next few weeks.

Yes, the amount of ink (or pixels) spilled writing about the white iPhone is ridiculous. But then, so is the almost year-long wait for a product promised — and demoed — at launch last summer.

White iPhone Tweet [Phil Schiller / Twitter]

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Mar 09

Super Fast Samsung Stealth Comes Out of Hiding

Posted in: leak, Miscellaneous, Phones, samsung, Smartphones, Today's Chili

Image of Samsung’s previously unnamed 4G LTE smartphone, the Stealth. Photo: TechnoBuffalo

An anonymous tipster leaked photographs and specs of Samsung’s previously unnamed 4G LTE phone, now reportedly known as the Samsung Stealth.

According to TechnoBuffalo, the Stealth will include a 4.3-inch, 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Plus display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and autofocus, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and an upgradeable Android 2.2 OS running on a 1GHz Hummingbird processor.

A 1500 mAh lithium-ion battery is purported to provide all day, 8-10 hour service with no problems.

This new smartphone is anticipated to harness Verizon’s full LTE speed capabilities—5-12 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up.

The Samsung Stealth was originally spotted at CES in January amidst a bevy of other Android handsets including Samsung’s own Infuse. It was referred to as the SCH-i510, and only information about its screen size and type and camera specs were available. Originally set to become available mid-year, the Stealth is now headed for a mid-April release according to the tipster.

The Stealth, which has already passed through the confines of the FCC, is said to include Samsung’s standard TouchWiz interface (although the leaked photos show it running Android LauncherPro).

HDMI out, a microSD card slot, 828 MB internal storage, and a 3.5mm headphone jack round out the phone’s hardware specs.

Samsung Stealth Caught in the Wild [Technobuffalo]


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Mar 09

Apple Releases iOS 4.3 for AT&T iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Posted in: Apple, att, ios, ipad, iPhone, ipod touch, Phones, Today's Chili

iOS 4.3 adds a wireless hotspot option for the AT&T iPhone. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Apple this morning released a software update for its mobile operating system, introducing a wireless hotspot feature for AT&T iPhones, a faster Safari browser and expanded AirPlay video streaming, among other features.

The Verizon iPhone 4 gets the shaft, as the update is not yet available for the device.

The free update requires plugging iDevice into a computer and clicking the Update button in iTunes. Wired.com recommends syncing your device to back it up, because the update requires restoring the software to factory settings before installing it.

Wired.com previously covered the new features of iOS 4.3. Most significantly, the update includes a faster JavaScript-rendering engine for Safari, meaning JavaScript-heavy websites will work much faster than before. Also, the AT&T iPhone can now be turned into a wireless hotspot that can be shared with up to five devices, similar to the hotspot tool that shipped with the Verizon iPhone.

Other minor changes for the iPad include:

  • Bigger spacebar on the virtual keyboard
  • Resurrection of the physical lock switch for screen orientation
  • A new Events mode when playing slideshows of your photo roll
  • Expanded AirPlay support, so you can now stream video playing in third-party apps or Safari to the Apple TV.
  • Push notifications and parental controls for Ping

And other minor changes for the AT&T iPhone and iPod Touch include:

  • A streamlined Location Services menu to enable or disable geotracking inside apps.
  • Expanded AirPlay support, so you can now stream video playing in third-party apps or Safari to the Apple TV.
  • Push notifications and parental controls for Ping

The Verizon iPhone isn’t missing out on much, as it can already be turned into a wireless hotspot. However, Verizon iPhone owners who have an Apple TV 2 may be annoyed that they’ll have to wait for the expanded AirPlay support.

It’s unclear when the Verizon iPhone will get iOS 4.3. An Apple representative told ArsTechnica that it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon because the product had just launched, but that the OS versions will probably converge in the future.


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Mar 08

Apple’s iOS Update Speeds Web Browsing, Expands AirPlay

Posted in: airplay, Apple, ios, ipad, iPhone, ipod touch, operating system, Phones, Today's Chili

The iPhone's multitasking drawer contains a playback widget for controlling audio apps. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The next operating system upgrade for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is landing sometime this week, and customers can look forward to major improvements in Safari performance and AirPlay media streaming.

Wired.com reported on most of the changes in iOS 4.3 when the beta released January. The newest additions that Apple announced last week included a significant speed boost to the Safari web browser, using the new Nitro JavaScript engine, which should make JavaScript run twice as fast.

Additionally, the AirPlay streaming feature has been expanded so that you can stream video played inside Safari or a third-party app to an Apple TV. Previously, AirPlay video streaming was limited to the Videos app on the iPad.

Wired.com got an early look at the iOS 4.3 gold master (usually the official version that ships), and it’s pretty slick.

Benchmark tests Wired.com ran using SunSpider showed a significant speed boost in Safari’s JavaScript performance between iOS 4.2 and iOS 4.3.

An iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3 completed the test in 4,340 milliseconds, and an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2 completed the same test in 10,626.4 milliseconds (fewer milliseconds is better). That makes iOS 4.3 about 59 percent faster than iOS 4.2 with JavaScript rendering. (See below the jump for the full benchmark results.)

So when iOS 4.3 ships this week, iPad 2 owners won’t be the only people getting a big speed boost. A significant increase in JavaScript performance means web browsing on JavaScript-heavy sites such as Google’s mobile apps (Voice, Docs and Reader), Facebook and others should be zippier.

As for AirPlay, I used an iPhone 4 to play a YouTube video and was able to hit the AirPlay button to send it to straight to the Apple TV 2. Being able to AirPlay YouTube is pretty nifty, because using the Apple TV’s remote control to browse YouTube is a huge pain in the rear; it’s much easier to search for YouTube clips using the iPhone. iOS 4.3’s expanded AirPlay support will be a nice addition for anyone with the new Apple TV.

The iOS 4.3 is due out sometime this week, possibly as soon as Wednesday, according to well-sourced Apple blogger Jim Dalrymple.

SunSpider results on iOS 4.2
============================================
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
——————————————–
Total: 10626.4ms +/- 6.8%
——————————————–

3d: 1437.6ms +/- 6.8%
cube: 443.0ms +/- 14.8%
morph: 534.6ms +/- 5.3%
raytrace: 460.0ms +/- 2.0%

access: 1635.8ms +/- 33.6%
binary-trees: 146.2ms +/- 5.8%
fannkuch: 671.2ms +/- 0.6%
nbody: 429.6ms +/- 32.4%
nsieve: 388.8ms +/- 106.4%

bitops: 877.0ms +/- 0.5%
3bit-bits-in-byte: 180.8ms +/- 0.8%
bits-in-byte: 185.2ms +/- 2.7%
bitwise-and: 163.2ms +/- 0.6%
nsieve-bits: 347.8ms +/- 0.5%

controlflow: 143.0ms +/- 1.1%
recursive: 143.0ms +/- 1.1%

crypto: 643.6ms +/- 2.9%
aes: 295.0ms +/- 2.8%
md5: 163.6ms +/- 1.2%
sha1: 185.0ms +/- 11.1%

date: 744.8ms +/- 3.3%
format-tofte: 377.2ms +/- 3.5%
format-xparb: 367.6ms +/- 3.1%

math: 1134.6ms +/- 0.9%
cordic: 425.6ms +/- 1.7%
partial-sums: 372.0ms +/- 0.6%
spectral-norm: 337.0ms +/- 2.6%

regexp: 1444.8ms +/- 1.1%
dna: 1444.8ms +/- 1.1%

string: 2565.2ms +/- 21.6%
base64: 355.8ms +/- 4.3%
fasta: 422.0ms +/- 15.0%
tagcloud: 458.6ms +/- 18.8%
unpack-code: 744.8ms +/- 5.6%
validate-input: 584.0ms +/- 70.2%

====

SunSpider results on iOS 4.3

============================================
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
——————————————–
Total: 4340.1ms +/- 0.7%
——————————————–

3d: 557.6ms +/- 1.6%
cube: 213.5ms +/- 3.4%
morph: 136.0ms +/- 0.9%
raytrace: 208.1ms +/- 0.7%

access: 497.2ms +/- 2.4%
binary-trees: 122.2ms +/- 3.3%
fannkuch: 138.7ms +/- 3.0%
nbody: 164.2ms +/- 4.7%
nsieve: 72.1ms +/- 2.1%

bitops: 219.2ms +/- 2.2%
3bit-bits-in-byte: 28.9ms +/- 10.4%
bits-in-byte: 53.6ms +/- 2.3%
bitwise-and: 64.5ms +/- 3.3%
nsieve-bits: 72.2ms +/- 2.3%

controlflow: 25.7ms +/- 4.4%
recursive: 25.7ms +/- 4.4%

crypto: 246.7ms +/- 0.5%
aes: 147.1ms +/- 0.4%
md5: 58.5ms +/- 1.7%
sha1: 41.1ms +/- 2.2%

date: 588.8ms +/- 4.2%
format-tofte: 277.3ms +/- 0.9%
format-xparb: 311.5ms +/- 7.2%

math: 462.2ms +/- 1.1%
cordic: 167.2ms +/- 0.8%
partial-sums: 206.6ms +/- 2.8%
spectral-norm: 88.4ms +/- 1.2%

regexp: 115.4ms +/- 3.5%
dna: 115.4ms +/- 3.5%

string: 1627.3ms +/- 0.9%
base64: 226.3ms +/- 3.2%
fasta: 227.8ms +/- 0.8%
tagcloud: 310.8ms +/- 0.8%
unpack-code: 554.2ms +/- 0.3%
validate-input: 308.2ms +/- 1.9%


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Mar 07

Verizon iPhone’s Download Speeds Are Worse Than We Thought

Posted in: Apple, att, iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili, verizon

The Verizon iPhone's network settings shows an option to enable a personal hotspot. Jon Snyder/Wired.com

For downloading data, the Verizon iPhone is slower than the AT&T iPhone, and it’s also slower than most other Verizon smartphones, according to a study published Monday.

Mobile analysis firm Metrico performed a comprehensive study on several AT&T and Verizon handsets, including the iPhone on both networks. The data suggests the differences between AT&T and Verizon are greater than we initially thought.

More Verizon iPhone coverage on Wired.com:

The debut of the iPhone on Verizon sheds light on more subtle differences between the Verizon and AT&T networks. Now that both networks have the same data-intensive iPhone capable of performing identical tests, it’s been easier for researchers to collect more comparable data. Independent tests by multiple publications, including Wired.com, have found that AT&T’s network is faster, while Verizon’s is more reliable with phone calls.

Metrico’s tests paint a conflicting picture. Some of their findings:

  • The Verizon iPhone performed “below average” in data download speeds when compared to other Verizon phones including the HTC Incredible.
  • For voice calls, the Verizon iPhone was one of the highest ranked in noise-canceling performance and was an average performer in voice quality.
  • The AT&T iPhone was the top performer in data transfer rates, but it ranks lower in call performance and Bluetooth speech quality compared to some BlackBerry, HTC and Samsung phones.
  • The AT&T iPhone completed 10 percent more download sessions than the Verizon iPhone when the handsets were moving — in a car, for instance.
  • But the Verizon iPhone had a 10 percent better success rate when uploading data in a stationary environment, like sitting at your desk.

The rest of Metrico’s results tell the story we’ve already heard: The AT&T iPhone’s download speeds are about double the mean download speed of Verizon’s.

However, even though AT&T’s iPhone downloaded files faster, when it comes to loading web pages, the average load time is about the same on both devices, Metrico added.  Metrico explained that many different factors affect web performance, including network latency and the operating system’s rendering times.  (Indeed, a previous bandwidth test performed by Speedtest.net found that both the Verizon and AT&T iPhones turned in the same average latency times of about 350 milliseconds.)

Most peculiar to Wired.com is that the Verizon iPhone is “below average” in download speeds compared to other Verizon handsets. Was the handset purposely slowed down to avoid overloading Verizon’s network? Is there something about Apple’s hardware that makes it slower than other handset makers?

It’s tough to say: Metrico doesn’t have theories to explain the test results.

“I can’t say it’s related to technology at this point,” said Rich McNally, vice president of information product at Metrico. “We’re measuring what happened, not necessarily why.”

To perform the study, Metrico put each phone through live tests on the AT&T or Verizon networks, as well as Metrico’s own simulated network. On the simulated network, the phones completed tests and transferred data to Metrico’s servers for more consistent, controlled results.

The phones were also tested in both stationary and mobile environments. For mobile testing, the phones were tested inside automobiles while driving.

In all, the company performed more than 10,000 web page downloads, 2,000 data download/upload tests, and 4,000 voice calls.


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Mar 04

Japanese Researchers Invent Creepy, Doughy Phone in ‘Human’ Form

Posted in: Phones, research, Today's Chili

This terrifying creature is the Elfoid, or Erufoido, a creepy, blob-shaped cellphone which I would never even touch, much less hold up close to my ear.

Astonishingly, the Elfoid is meant to make people less scared of their phones, not more. It simplifies complex technology by using hidden buttons and voice-recognition to control it, but that’s just the beginning of the weirdness.

The Elfoid will somehow communicate the “presence” of the person on the line using sound and cameras, and the doughy urethane cover mimics the feel of human skin. This will, researchers at Osaka University hope, make people feel closer to each other.

What these researchers seem to have missed is the sheer creepiness of the doll. Take a look: its legs fuse into one tapered, amorphous limb, akin to the root of the much-feared Mandrake, and the arms disappear into pointed stumps that not even a mother could want to hug. If this thing were pressed to my cheek and then started to vibrate and hum, I think I’d just panic and run. And that’s before we even get to waking up in the middle of the night to find this demonic and deformed homunculus staring at you from your night-stand. Lord, it probably even has glowing red LEDs where its eyes should be.

There’s only one good use for this kind of doll, one which is surprisingly similar to its intended purpose of conveying emotional opinions from afar. It should be treated like the Voodoo doll that it obviously is, and stuck with pins from head to stump. It’s our only hope.

Creepy doll press release [ATR Osake University via Asahi]

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Feb 28

Beluga Delivers Group Chat to Smartphones, Browsers

Posted in: Android, apps, iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili

If Google had executed Google Wave correctly, it would’ve looked something like Beluga, a cross-platform group chat client available for Android phones, iPhones and any computer with a web browser.

The free service has a streamlined interface for group chatting. Conversations are called “Pods,” so when you start chatting with a friend you create a Pod, and then you invite others to join it.

On the Beluga smartphone apps, inside a Pod you can send messages and photos extremely quickly. If you choose to share your location, Beluga displays a map with your coordinates below each of your messages, so you can let your friends know where you are.

Whenever you receive a message, Beluga sends a push notification to your Android device or iPhone; the app is running in the background so you can stay signed on constantly. In this way, Beluga could be a free substitute for text messaging, if you get enough of your friends hooked on it. Getting people to sign up shouldn’t be very difficult, because you can log in through your Facebook account.

You don’t lose your Beluga conversations either: all the Pods are saved in the cloud on Belugapods.com, through the web version of the chat client.

Group chat clients are becoming increasingly popular in the era of smartphones, where e-mail doesn’t adequately keep up with our real-time movements, and threads tend to get chaotic. (Google Wave could have solved this problem, but Google didn’t seem to have a clear vision on what it was trying to deliver.) Other examples of group chat clients include HeyTell, a walkie-talkie app for groups to interact, and Yobongo, a group chat app that will emphasize location features when it’s finished.

I’ve tried many group chat apps and Beluga comes closest to delivering what I need: most importantly it’s cross-platform and pushes notifications in real time so I can keep up with multiple people on the go, which will be useful for coordinating get-togethers and collaborating with coworkers on team projects. Plus, it’s fast, and the interface is straightforward and polished.

The big piece still missing from Beluga is a fully functional web client. The web version of Beluga is still in beta mode, and it lacks the ability to send images as well as geodata. Once that’s finished, Beluga is probably going to be a big hit.

Beluga download link [iTunes]

Beluga download link [Android]


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Feb 25

Consumer Reports Finds Antenna Issue on Verizon iPhone

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili, verizon

The Verizon iPhone 4's network settings menu. Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Consumer Reports claims the Verizon iPhone 4 exhibits signal loss when held in a specific way, similar to the problems seen in the AT&T iPhone 4 last year.

More Verizon iPhone coverage on Wired.com:

Never mind that Consumer Reports was initially hasty to downplay concerns about AT&T iPhone 4 antenna issues last year without doing testing of its own, only to completely flip-flop after running some lab tests and concluding that the antenna design was seriously flawed.

Now Consumer Reports says it has put the Verizon iPhone through the same lab tests inside a radio-frequency isolation chamber and found that the Verizon iPhone 4, too, may lose its connection when held “in a specific but quite natural way,” in areas with weak signal conditions.

“For that reason, we are not including the Verizon iPhone 4 in our list of recommended smartphones, despite its high ranking in our Ratings,” Consumer Reports said in its report.

In an episode famously named “Antennagate,” many early iPhone 4 customers in 2010 reported that covering the lower-left antenna band of the handset caused significant signal loss, or at worst, dropped calls. Bad press about the AT&T iPhone 4’s antenna design escalated to the point that Apple had to hold a press conference to address the issue.

CEO Steve Jobs explained to journalists that every smartphone has “weak spots” that may cause signal attenuation when held in a certain way. Apple found that keeping a protective case around the iPhone 4 decreased the likelihood of signal loss, so the company started a temporary free-case program for customers experiencing the issue.

However, in Consumer Reports lab tests, the iPhones were the only smartphones that exhibited signal loss when touched with a finger in a specific place (the lower left corner, where two different external metal antennas are separated by a thin black band).

Despite the wave of negative commentary on the antenna, the iPhone 4 was Apple’s best-selling handset ever, with 14.1 million iPhones sold in the fourth quarter of 2010.

In other words, even though wishy-washy Consumer Reports doesn’t recommend the Verizon iPhone, people are probably still going to buy it anyway.

In my review of the Verizon iPhone, I found that its call quality and reliability were superior to that of the AT&T iPhone’s. However, data transfers were significantly slower than AT&T’s, making the AT&T iPhone better for media consumption (watching Netflix, downloading apps, etc.) while the Verizon iPhone is superior for phone calls.


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