Motorola is reportedly working on a device that will have one of the largest displays of any smartphone. Code-named the Shadow, it will sport a 4.3-inch WVGA+ touchscreen, Google’s Android OS, and a range of other high-end features.
When it comes to screen size, the Shadow will be equaled only by the Windows Mobile-based HTC HD2. The closest Android-powered model will be the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, which will sport a 4.0-inch display. Most other models, like theMotorola Droid and Google Nexus One, have 3.7-inch screens.
The display on this upcoming Motorola smartphone will allegedly have a resolution of 850 by 484 pixels.
Other High-End Features Information on the Shadow is still sketchy, but it will supposedly have a tablet shape, as seen in the single, not very revealing picture of it that has leaked out.
This upcoming Motorola smartphone will reportedly have an 8 MPx camera, a resolution that is becoming the new standard for very high-end models. Another cutting edge feature will be an HDMI video-out port.
Details Unknown
It is not known what version of Google’s Android OS this model will offer — and this largely depends on when it will be released.
Its processor speed and amount of internal storage, as well as all other details, are equally unknown.
When and where the Motorola Shadow will be released — if it’s released — has also not yet been revealed.
One of Several
In recent weeks, there have been several unconfirmed reports on a number of upcoming Android-based models being developed by Motorola.
Several of these have a tablet shape like the Shadow will supposedly have, but with smaller displays. These are generally described as versions of the Motorola Droid, but without the sliding keyboard.
Blackberry wont say what caused the eight hour service interruption but independent technicians believe this is an internal problem.
Blackberry users: welcome to wireless hell. Blogs and twitter sites are flooded with rants-
“Oh blackberry how I loathe thee,” one person writes. Another said, “I might just have to switch from a Blackberry to iphone– I hate to say it.”
Blackberry won’t say what caused the eight hour service interruption but independent technicians believe this is was internal problem. Blackberry’s system crashed while it was being updated with new messenger software.
RIM is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded blackberry messenger since december 14th to upgrade your software again. To download blackberry messenger newest version, 5.0.0.57 click http://blackberry.com/messenger
This was the second outage is less than two weeks.
New photos and a hands-on description have compared Google’s custom-built Nexus One handset, rumored to be for sale to the public next month, with Apple’s iPhone [updated with hardware specs].
Jason Chen of Gizmodo received some hands-on time with the hardware thanks to an anonymous source. He called the long-rumored, supposed Google Phone a “Droid killer” — ironic, because Motorola attempted to position its Droid, which launched in November, as an “iPhone killer.”
Chen said the Nexus one is slightly thinner and lighter than the iPhone 3GS. The back is somewhat rubbery, and feels less “cheap,” he said, than the iPhone’s plastic back.
“You can call the design the antithesis of the Droid: smooth, curved, and light, instead of hard, square and pointy,” he said. “It feels long and silky and natural in your hand — even more so than the iPhone 3GS.”
Loading a Web page over Wi-Fi, the Nexus One was found to be the fastest of the three phones. The iPhone 3GS reportedly loaded a page “a few seconds later,” while the Droid came in third. Chen said the results were consistent with a number of Web sites.
The Nexus One and iPhone 3GS reportedly had similar results with a Javascript benchmark test, though Mobile Safari on the iPhone scored better. The Droid came short of both handsets, with a score level at about 60 percent of its competitors.
The Nexus One screen was described as superior, with “vibrant” colors and darker blacks than its competitors. It was also said to be brighter. In comparison, Chen said the Droid and iPhone screens seemed “washed out.”
“This is probably the best screen we’ve seen on a smartphone so far,” he said. “Probably.”
The Nexus One’s 5-megapixel camera includes flash, though the picture quality was said to be unspectacular. The camera has autofocus, but does not have the tap-to-focus feature seen on the iPhone 3GS.
Google’s handset also lacks multi-touch, was said to have mediocre music playback over it speakers, and call quality was not tested.
Google Nexus Android Phone Repair At Dr. Cell Phone
Research In Motion Ltd. said some of its customers in North America are experiencing delays receiving emails on their BlackBerry devices.
BlackBerry Repair at Dr. Cell Phone
In a statement, the smart-phone maker said customers “may be currently experiencing delays receiving email” but phone services and PIN-to-PIN messaging aren’t affected.
The company apologized for any inconvenience and said technical teams are working to resolve the problem, but it didn’t say what caused the problem or when a resolution is expected. The Toronto Star earlier reported that some BlackBerry customers in North America have been without email service since at least 3:15 a.m.
RIM has experienced several service outages in recent years, including North American-wide outages in April 2007 and February 2008. The latest problem comes as RIM gets set to release its third-quarter results Thursday after the market close.
Google Inc plans to sell two versions of its own-branded cell phone: one with a service contract with T-Mobile USA and another that is unlocked, a source familiar with the matter said.
HTC Google Phone Repair at Dr. Cell Phone
The phone, manufactured by HTC, has a number of code names such as HTC Passion, Dream or Nexus One and could be available directly though the Google website as early as January 5, according to the source.
Google said on its official blog on Saturday that it was testing a new mobile device with its employees. Media reports have said that Google will sell an unlocked version of the touch screen phone, allowing consumers to pick a carrier of their choice to provide wireless service.
Another version will be linked to Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA, which will subsidize the cost of the phone for U.S. consumers who agree to a service contract, the source said. Pricing details were not available.
“In the long term Google will become a seller and get commission from operators,” the source said, adding that other operators are expected to follow T-Mobile’s lead eventually and agree to Google’s terms.
The phone is similar to Apple Inc’s iPhone but has, among other features, an exchangeable battery, a somewhat larger screen and the ability for consumers to add a memory card to the device. Any operator who wants to make the phone available to its customers will have to go through Google, the source said.
“Apple had a phone so hot it changed the business model and got operators to agree to revenue sharing. This is going to change the business too,” the person added.
A T-Mobile representative said the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.
A Google representative would not comment beyond the blog post on Saturday, which said that Google employees were testing an Android-based device to “experiment with new mobile features and capabilities.”
Baird Research analyst Will Power said: “We expect the launch of a new competitive device to be directionally negative for most of the existing smart phone markers, including Apple, Research in Motion, Nokia Oyg, HTC, Motorola Inc, Palm Inc, Samsung and others, while perhaps most negative for the existing Android partners.”
Until now, Google has partnered with many handset makers by offering its open-source Android software as a freely available operating system for smart phones.
As of last month, Google said that more than a dozen phones were available with Android, including the heavily promoted Motorola Droid phone that is available with Verizon Wireless, a unit of Verizon Communications and Vodafone.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported a rather surprising story: as it turns out, it’s not AT&T’s fault when your iPhone drops a call or fetches your e-mail at a rate of one message per hour. The problem is actually that your iPhone is poorly designed.
iPhone Diagnostic for Reciever issues (signal drops) at Dr. Cell Phone
No, really. That’s what it said.
The claim was made in Randall Stross’s Digital Domain column and is based on data from Global Wireless Solutions and Root Wireless, two companies which test cellular networks. Global Wireless results claims that AT&T has 40 to 50 percent higher throughput than its competitors. Root Wireless also found that the network had better average speeds (unquantified in the article), and stronger signals to boot. iPhone users who see worse results, Stross postulates, are running into problems because of poorly designed circuitry in their handsets.
I think this qualifies. Granted, it’s not AT&T making this claim—but AT&T is a client of Global Wireless, and there’s no information about how Global’s results came to be reported alongside those of Root Wireless. Maybe Stross just happened to get two independent press releases on the same day. Maybe.
I checked out the Websites of both Global Wireless and Root Networks, hoping to find some information about their testing methodology. Nada on Global’s; I infer from the Times article that they have a bunch of guys in vans with cell phones. A large bunch, who made 5 million voice and data calls across 3 million miles of road. Root’s process is rather interesting; it collects data from apps running on smartphones. Unfortunately, Root can’t run its application on the iPhone itself, due to the limitation in background-processing, throwing yet another question into the mix. The company’s run 17 million tests on other phones, though, and its results are published at CNet Review’s carrier coverage page.
Those testing numbers, incidentally, are why I wanted to know more about the tests. They’re too high. Tell me you tested a network 10,000 times, and that sounds reasonable; say you’ve made 5 million phone calls, and I start dividing by 365. (Nearly ten calls a minute, year-round, no breaks.) I’m not saying they haven’t done it; I’m observing that is a number designed to shut off the critical thinking function in the listener.
The main reason I’m skeptical: many of the high-volume bloggers and tweeters are also the kind of people who run network bandwidth monitors 24/7. So am I, using a utility called MenuMeters. Eventually, you get a feel for your actual speed with plain old human perception. It’s just not credible that a speed difference of 50 percent would have gone unnoticed among this crowd. When one commercial provider has a service that knocks everyone else into a cocked hat, we talk about it.
Likewise, many folks were AT&T subscribers before June 29, 2007, and probably would have noticed if their bandwidth took a hit when they switched from a non-iPhone to an Apple gadget. And, of course, thanks to the iPhone’s global availability, the third dog that isn’t barking is the lack of corroborating evidence from other countries that the iPhone is bottlenecking their speed.
So with all due respect to the Times, I’m taking this with a kilograin of salt until it’s corroborated elsewhere. So far, that’s not coming; David Reed, designer of the UDP protocol, reported to David Farber’s Interesting-People mailing list on Sunday that if you test the AT&T network with high-performance measuring tools and a 3G modem, you can expect the same results you see on an iPhone.
Just 3% of iPhone customers account for 40% of the data traffic on its network, the company says. It plans to introduce a pricing system that discourages heavy uses such as streaming audio and video.
IPhone users guilty of hogging data could see their phone bills fattening.
Unlock iPhone to use it with T-mobile at Dr. Cell Phone
In a presentation to investors Wednesday, AT&T’s head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, said that just 3% of iPhone users generate 40% of the data traffic on AT&T’s cellphone network.
As such AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone, is likely to introduce a pricing system that would penalize heavy data users, encouraging them “to either reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites,” he said.
De la Vega did not offer specifics on pricing changes.
By using data-intensive applications such as streaming audio and video services, a small number of iPhone users have been putting a huge burden on AT&T’s network, causing lackluster performance in New York City, San Francisco and other major markets.
“We’ve got to get to those customers and have them recognize that they need to change their patterns or have to face other things,” De la Vega told investors at UBS.
In general, smart-phone users pay a fixed monthly rate for unlimited data, but AT&T and other companies have found that the explosion of phone applications that must connect to the Internet has caused a surge in the amount of data users are consuming.
De la Vega said AT&T will have added 2,000 cell sites this year and plans to continue investing heavily to keep its networks fast.
“What we’re seeing in the U.S. today, in terms of smart-phone penetration and 3G data,” he said, “nobody else is seeing on the rest of the planet.”
NEW YORK – Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner said Wednesday the tablet computer Apple Inc. is rumored to be working on could launch as early as late March or April based on his recent checks.
Dr. Cell Phone Getting Ready to fix Apple Tablet Touch Screen
Apple executives have not directly acknowledged the allegedly forthcoming product, which would be a cross between a laptop and an iPhone or iPod Touch. Tabletcomputers typically feature a touchscreen but no keyboard.
Other computer makers have enjoyed success lately with stripped-down devices like low-costnetbooks and e-readers.
Speculation of a tablet from Apple has been swirling among analysts and technology blogsfor a few years.
Reiner said his checks indicate Apple will begin ramping tablet production in February, making it available in stores in March or April if all goes smoothly. He said the display will be a 10.1-inch multi-touch screen.
He believes Apple will sell the tablet for $1,000. Earlier this year, Piper Jaffray’s prominent technology analyst Gene Munster predicted a price between $500 and $700.
Reiner said his contacts in the U.S. said Apple is offering an “attractive” deal to book publishers, which he believes implies the tablet will also function as an e-book reader to rival Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle. He said he believes Apple’s terms are better for publishers than those offered by Amazon.
Today, Dell announced the availability of a new addition to their small-business Vostro line of laptops introducing the Vostro V13. The big news here is that it’s their first ULV thin-and-light for the business sector, an area that seems to be a big focus factor in a down economy when lots of small business entrepreneurs are looking for affordable portables. We got a chance for a quick up-close hands-on with one a few blocks from our offices, and it’s definitely an attractive little laptop.
Dr. Cell Phone to Replace LCD Screens on Laptops
With an industrial design that is heavy on anodized aluminum and borrows a lot of what was eye-catching about the original Adamo, the Vostro V13 is .65 inches thick and weighs around 3.5 pounds, comes with a webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an ExpressCard slot standard, and starts at $449–but, mind you, that’s a configuration that includes a single-core Celeron processor and Ubuntu Linux as an OS. For Windows 7 and a Core 2 Duo ULV, the price rises in the range of mid-to-high $600, which is still really good compared to its closest competitors, the HP Pavilion dm3 and Asus UL30A-A1.
The Vostro V13 will support up to 4GB of RAM, and can be optionally upgraded with 3G mobile broadband.
Battery life courtesy of the sealed-in six-cell is, according to Dell, a little under five hours, though we’ll have to see for ourselves when we review one. We have to hand it to Dell, though–they seem to have taken a lot of what was so appealing about the Adamo and passed it down into a machine that’ll still be sleek enough to show off. The keyboard felt nice and comfortable and the laptop has a sturdy-feeling frame, which isn’t always the case with ultrathin budget-range laptops.
Complaining to AT&T about poor wireless coverage has never been easier thanks to a new iPhone app.
Mark the Spot is no prank that somehow slipped past the App Store’s censors. This is an official iPhone app from AT&T letting you report dropped calls, failed calls, lack of coverage, data failure, and poor voice quality.
In the app’s information section, AT&T says it will use the reports to “optimize and enhance the network. Problems will be clustered to highlight areas for investigation.” This app is as close as we’ll see to AT&T admitting it’s got a coverage problem.
The last few weeks have not been good for the carrier. First came Verizon Wireless’ attack ads, which showed major gaps in AT&T’s 3G coverage. Then came theultimately failed lawsuit from AT&T to stop the ads. In the meantime, AT&T launched some terrible ads of its own. But I think the real killer was a Consumer Reports survey that ranked AT&T last among the major carriers in customer satisfaction. For all AT&T can say about the iPhone’s success and customers’ low turnover rates, you can’t ignore unhappy people.
So now we’ve got “Mark the Spot,” which at least makes you feel like your grievances are being heard. Yeah, it’s kind of silly — I find it odd that AT&T doesn’t already know where its problems are — but I like the idea. Here’s AT&T admitting, albeit indirectly, that it’s got problems. And instead of talking about those issues in another ad, which would be really embarrassing, “Mark the Spot” communicates directly to iPhone owners. It’s a creative solution that actually takes advantage of the iPhone’s ease of use.
Kudos to AT&T for taking a different stab at its coverage problems, even if we don’t know how exactly the data from Mark the Spot will be used.
Just one warning to frustrated iPhone owners: AT&T says that multiple submissions from one person, for the same problem in the same area, won’t be given extra weight. Your angry Mark the Spot spam won’t bring relief any faster.
The display on this upcoming Motorola smartphone will allegedly have a resolution of 850 by 484 pixels.
