Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s popular iPhone invigorated the smartphone market, and recent rumors about the handset’s possible expansion to Verizon are renewing debate over which U.S. carrier offers the highest quality service.

It’s difficult to say whose network is best: Each carrier advertises itself as the speediest and most reliable. Consumer experiences with each network vary on a case-by-case basis; some AT&T customers swear their network is the worst, while a number of Verizon users are preaching that theirs is superb — and vice versa. Customers on the smaller U.S. networks, T-Mobile and Sprint, are just as inconsistent in terms of satisfaction.

As of 2008, over 20 million U.S. homes rely solely on mobile phones for telecom communication, according to research company Nielsen. Therefore, it’s clear that in recent years the value of a high-quality, efficient cellphone connection has grown tremendously for the everyday consumer. A missed or dropped call can potentially ruin a relationship, cost job seekers career opportunities or simply create a persistent annoyance.

A carrier’s network performance is a dealbreaking factor for consumers shopping for a smartphone, whether it’s the iPhone, the HTC G1, or a BlackBerry Storm. Just which cellphone network is the best? Or better yet, which carrier is best for you in your particular area? In August, Wired.com conducted a global study to investigate the iPhone 3G’s network issues, which concluded that connection problems were tied to AT&T rather than the handset itself. Following up on that survey, Wired.com is inviting every 3G smartphone user in the United States to participate in a study to determine which carrier is the best overall in the country.

The process involves running a data speed test on your browser-equipped smartphone, followed by plotting your results on an interactive map with your computer. Ultimately, consumers will be able to view the results on the map to see how well each carrier performs in different parts of the country.

Follow the instructions below to complete the test, which will take about five minutes.

1. Ensure Wi-Fi is turned off and 3G is enabled on your smartphone (not the slower EDGE connection).

2. Load your smartphone’s browser and visit http://inetworktest.com/wired.*

3. The test will run automatically as the page loads. When it’s done loading, tap your carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint), and your results will appear.

4. On your computer screen, scroll to the ZeeMap at the top of this article and click the Add button. Fill in the Location and Details fields (see screenshots below for examples). For “General Satisfaction” rate your satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 5 — low satisfaction to high satisfaction, respectively.

5. Click Submit to complete the survey. Your entry should look similar to the example in the screenshot below.

*JavaScript must be enabled to run the data test page. Some BlackBerry devices have JavaScript turned off by default. See these instructions to learn how to turn JavaScript on for BlackBerry devices.

And then you’re done. After a week of collecting data, Wired.com will compile the results and highlight noteworthy conclusions about each carrier.

We strongly encourage smartphone owners to complete the test: The more participants, the better the conclusions we can reach. E-mail your questions or concerns about the test to BChen [at] Wired [dot] com, or add them in the comments section below.

Wired.com would like to extend a special thanks to Ben Reubenstein of Xcellent Creations, who designed the 3G data test for this study. iPhone and iPod Touch owners interested in learning more about data performance on their devices can download the iNetwork app for $1 through the App Store.

See Also:

• Wired.com’s iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Network Weaknesses
• Survey: People Love iPhone Despite Its Imperfections
• Apple: We’re Sticking With AT&T for the iPhone
• 4 Reasons Apple Should Share the iPhone With Verizon
• Cell Phone Reception Bars Are Meaningless
• What’s Wrong With the 3G in iPhone 3G
• Suit Alleges AT&T, Apple ‘Oversold’ iPhone, Strained 3G Network …
• Video: iPhone 3G in Reality Versus Advertisement
• UK Bans Apple’s ‘Really Fast’ iPhone 3G Ad

Have you heard? Bluetooth 3.0 sounds like a fantasy spec: Wi-Fi speeds, faster response time and more efficient power usage. Here’s a quick primer on Bluetooth and why Bluetooth 3.0 is going to rock face.

Why Is Bluetooth Blue?
Let’s start at the beginning: As you probably already know, Bluetooth is a wireless protocol maintained by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. What you might not know is that it’s actually named after a 10th century Danish king, King Harald Blatand (Bluetooth) who brought together parts of Scandanavia. This is what Bluetooth was designed to do, except it’s bringing together devices—rather than Viking hordes—with a universal wireless standard. The symbol for Bluetooth, even, comes from the runes for Harald Bluetooth’s initials, H & B.

Basic Details
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless setup design for personal area networks that rides on the 2.4 to 2.485GHz bands. The core of the radio tech is that it uses a frequency-hopping spread spectrum signal that bounces between 79 different frequencies, which makes it less prone to interference from other 2.4GHz devices in the area—you know, like everything nowadays. It’s designed to be low power, but the standard has three different classes of strength, using more power to go farther. Most mobile stuff is Class 2, using about 2.5mW power for a range of 33 feet, but Class 1 will stretch out over 100 feet meters using 100mW.

Profiles, or Where It Gets Confusing
The Bluetooth spec is a series of profiles, which you can think of like capabilities. Devices have to have compatible profiles in order to make certain magic happen. For instance, the Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP) profile describes how to stream stereo audio, like to headphones from an MP3 player. No A2DP, no stereo. There’s a ton of them, from FTP (file transfer profile) to headset profile, which defines how a Bluetooth headset should talk to a gadget. You’ve also got core protocols, like object exchange (OBEX), which is what you lets swap files between Bluetooth devices, famously crippled by Verizon on some phones.

Bluetooth Spec Versions
• Bluetooth 1.0, in a word, sucked. The puny 1Mbps connection was split between data and voice, so you really only got about 700Kbps transfer rates (if you were lucky) and you could only tether to one device at a time.

• 1.1 fixed some of 1.0 and 1.0B’s suckiness

• 1.2 is where it started getting actually better, bringing in Adaptive Frequency Hopping to make it more resistant to interference from the constant 2.4GHz maelstrom, and Enhanced Voice Processing, so it doesn’t sound like you’re talking through a cat blender. Backward-compatible with 1.1. The original RAZR had Bluetooth 1.2.

• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, hello speed, goodbye power. Ratified in 2004, data transfer rates were boosted to 2.1Mbps with Enhanced Data Rate, and power consumption was cut in half. It’s the Bluetooth standard that made good headsets possible. Technically, EDR is optional, but what’s the point without it? The iPhone is an example of 2.0 + EDR, as is the HTC Touch Pro and T-Mobile’s Android G1.

• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR added further enhancements to the Bluetooth 2 spec—better, faster pairing, with fewer steps and lower power slurpage still, depending on what you’re doing. It also adds support for Near Field Communications (NFC), for completely automagical pairing.

Bluetooth 3.0 + HS and Bluetooth Low Energy
Oh hey, you made it. The Bluetooth Core Specification 3.0 High Speed was formally adopted a week ago.

The big deal is that has crazy fast data speeds of up to 24Mbps (fast for Bluetooth, that is), thanks to the fact it piggybacks on good old 802.11 Wi-Fi radio. The standard Bluetooth radio is used for the boring, low intensity part, like profiles and whatnot, but the data shakedown happens over 802.11 when you’re doing things like wirelessly syncing music libraries, downloading photos to a printer or sending video files, so you’re only using lots of juice when you need to. Unicast Connectionless Data is a feature that’ll make devices more responsive (less lag, yo) and Enhanced Power Control will use power more smart and efficiently (so, using less of it, though transferring heavy files like whole music libraries is gonna suck on the power teet hard, obviously). No device has it now, but we should be seeing it live in the next 9 to 12 months, which isn’t a bad turnaround, considering it took 4 years for the first Bluetooth 1.0 devices to show up.

At about the same time, Bluetooth SIG revealed Bluetooth low energy technology that will let devices sip power so slowly they can last more than a year on a single battery. It’s slow like Bluetooth 1.0 and isn’t voice capable, but will be super useful in monitors and sensors and those kinds of gadgets, letting them connect to bigger computers and whatnot.

So that, in a nutshell, is the wacky world of Bluetooth. See, it doesn’t have to be just used by douchey business guys.

Still something you still wanna know? Send any questions about why the sky is blue, evil clown dentists or how Coke rots your teeth to tips@gizmodo.com, with “Giz Explains” in the subject line.

We’ve seen ZigBee wireless functionality showing up in everything from remote controls to robots, but apparently that was all just the beginning. The Alliance has announced plans to expand its low-power standards to support Internet Protocol, a move that member-company Texas Instruments is apparently quite pleased about — perhaps seeing an opportunity to make up some of those declining sales in the mobile phone area. IP connectivity in all sorts of random devices should open the door for plenty of exciting and new-fangled connectivity options, all of which can only mean one thing: dung beetle MMO.

Filed under: Household, Wireless

ZigBee adding IP capabilities to its wireless devices, Texas Instruments likey originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aw, how timely. Shortly after the Pleo lineage fell victim to economic pressures, an all-too-cute video has surfaced showing a remaining creature being controlled by a Wii Nunchuk. In reality, the underlying abuse here is quite sad — for those unaware, Pleo was designed to be entirely autonomous, and the first step to regaining control over it is to implement a “Pleo Stunner” in order to shock him into silence. From there, an XBee-based solution is used to tap into his control system and override every single instinct the poor sap ever had. If you’re into this type of sadistic torture (or you’re just an aspiring dictator), check the read link for all the instructions you need to fulfill your own evil desires. For those just interested in a good chuckle, the vid’s after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Video: surviving Pleo loses remaining autonomy, gets controlled by Wii Nunchuk

Filed under: Robots

Video: surviving Pleo loses remaining autonomy, gets controlled by Wii Nunchuk originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The rumors were true, and today’s the day that the Bluetooth SIG gets official with the latest, greatest version of Bluetooth. Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, as it’ll be called, promises to be markedly faster than prior iterations thanks to the reliance on 802.11, which is the same protocol used by WiFi modules, routers, etc. The new standard obviously catapults Bluetooth into a new dimension; rather than being good for nothing more than sending images from one phone to another or syncing a fitness module to a DAP, v3.0 is nimble enough to handle camcorder-to-HDTV, PC-to-PMP and UMPC-to-printer transfers. In fact, the inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers “at the approximate rate of 24Mbps.” We had sit-downs with Mike Foley (executive director of the Bluetooth SIG) and Atheros CTO Bill McFarland in order to find out a few more details about plans for the protocol — if you’re eager to hear what they had to say, not to mention see a demonstration of BT 3.0 at work, follow us past the break.

Continue reading Bluetooth 3.0 + HS gets official, adds speed with 802.11

Filed under: Wireless

Bluetooth 3.0 + HS gets official, adds speed with 802.11 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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