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Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup — May 26, 2010

pic-iClothing+iTee+iDressAT&T customers in New York City will be able to access free WiFi in and around Times Square. This is the company’s temporarily solution to data congestion. This will of course be great for New Yorkers with iPad WiFi-only models. Just don’t go near Yankee Stadium, as iPads are banned there since they’re being classified as laptops. On the other hand, if you do go to Yankee Stadium with an iPad, you might want to put on iClothing’s iTee ($44.95) or iDress ($89.95), right, both of which have a pocket which will hold an iPad. Given how heavy the iPad is, I’m assuming the stitching on these clothing items is strong. Let’s just hope stadium security doesn’t search your body.

Planning to travel and need worldwide Internet data plan? XCom Global is offering unlimited data in any of 21 countries, including USA, Canada, Mexico and the UK, for $14.95-17.95/day. Access is provided through either a USB broadband stick or a Novatel MiFi. Sounds expensive, but apparently Vodafone’s rates, which are by the megabyte, could be considerably higher if you plan to be online a lot.

Unlocked smartphones are in enough demand that AT&T will provide unlocks for most of their handsets, with the exception of the iPhone, thanks to the pre-trial settlement of a class-action lawsuit.

The Android-powered Dell Streak 5″ slate computer/ GSM phone launches in the UK in June. It has two cameras (to support video chat), amongst other features. The device, which was formerly known as the Mini 5, will make its U.S. appearance in late summer. I don’t know; this former factor seems a bit large to use as a phone, unless you utilize the speaker or earbuds.

Android-based smartphones are selling at about 100K units per day, though given there are over 60 different handsets, that’s not too surprising. What is surprising is that Android phones outsold iPhones in the U.S. in Q1 2010.

If you think the iPad is too costly, take note $100-150 Android-based tablets could hit the market by the second half of 2010. While I think Apple will drop the price of the iPad next year when newer models come out, I doubt they’ll go as low as they devices, which will be powered chips from Via Technologies. I’ll have seven, please — one for each day of the week.

10 Confirmed or Possible Features for 4th-Gen iPhone

pic-iphones-600w

We all probably know by now that another generation of iPhone is coming and that it’ll have numerous new features. Some of these features will catch Apple up with other handset manufactures, but other features will put them ahead of everyone else.

Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese manufacturer of the iPhone, will apparently ship 24M units of the next generation of the smartphone. The new phone is likely to be announced on Jun 7, 2010, during Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference), and Foxconn will ship close to 5M units before H1 2010, with the rest of the units from July-Dec. Given that the 1st half of 2010 ends Jun 30th, I’m guessing that there’s an expectation of selling 5M units in June. Given that AT&T is offering an $18 upgrade fee from older iPhones, I wouldn’t be surprised if they exceed 5M units. Note: Unwired View thinks
the phone will be announced Jun 22nd, but that leaves a little over a week to move 5M units. I’d put my money on Jun 7, with a faster release to markets outside the U.S. than is the case for the iPad. (The iPad becomes available in Canada and select other countries this Friday, May 28th.)

Digitimes Research is saying that the gen-4 iPhone will boast a screen resolution of 960×640, which if correct is 4 times that of the current iPhones (480×320). Inside will be an “Arm Cortex A8 processor and a 512MB memory module.” However, other sites have speculated on the same A4 chip that is inside the iPad, as well 256MB of RAM, and possibly 128MB of storage, thanks to recently available, less expensive 64GB flash memory modules. It’ll like have a longer battery life as well — which will be necessary to power video chat on the go.

Confirmed New Features

Now in addition to features on the next-gen iPhone that we’ve recently discussed, and other openly confirmed and discussed features such as app folders and third-party multi-tasking, here are some recently revealed features:

  1. Utilities folder on the default home screen containing the clock, calculator compass, and voice memo apps.
  2. Tethering support. This was available in OS 3.0 but never offered. While the ability is there again in OS 4.0, AT&T or other carriers will not necessarily offer it. But if they do, you can finally connect your iPad WiFi-only model, or any WiFi device, for that matter, when you need to get online. That’d be a definite plus, as the Palm Pre Plus Mobile Hotspot feature that I use currently for my iPad is only as good as the battery life, which is maybe 2-2.5 hours while in use. If the new iPhone’s battery has a longer life, that’ll be a huge plus.
  3. Screen lock, just like on the iPad, so that the screen doesn’t rotate on you if you’re lying down.
  4. CDMA version, presumably for Rogers Canada, but possibly also for Verizon USA.

There will likely be many other features revealed this week and next — or until the phone gets announced.

Potential New Features

By “potential feature” I mean that a feature is either supported by evidence but not confirmed by Apple, or it’s a feature that may not be available in OS 4.0 but rather in upgrades down the road, or finally a plausible feature that has been rumored by one site or another.

  1. Colors. Possibly as many as 5 case colors, though pictures of rumored prototypes show only black and white so far.
  2. Video chat. Apparently the director of the movie American Beauty (Kevin Spacey, Mena Suvari), Sam Mendes, will be directing a series of commercials for the next iPhone, and Engadget says that a “trusted source” that one scene will have a simulated video chat between a mother and a daughter. It’s not like we didn’t already know it was coming, with all the evidence out there (including a video calls debugging feature), but this sort of thing helps cement the reality.
  3. Front- and back-facing cameras, to maintain current camera abilities and to support video chat.
  4. Camera flash, to light up dark environments.
  5. Redesigned architecture and footprint: Thinner frame, larger battery, larger screen resolution.
  6. Contextual advertising, local coupons, temporary location apps.

Of course, some of the above is still essentially speculation until the official announcement. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

Netbooks Still Favored Over iPads? [Updated]

chart-retrevo-netbook-or-ipad-2-300wAre netbooks still favored over the Apple iPad? According to a survey by Retrevo, almost a third of U.S. consumers who had planned to buy a netbook ended up with an iPad. The survey further indicates that the most desirable netbook feature is it’s portability.

I’d have to agree with the portability. I gave my wife an HP netbook to supplement her older MacBook 15″ and she loves it, despite that it’s not a Mac. If she’s on the go, she tends to favor the netbook because it slips easily into her handbag. It also has 3G Internet, whereas if she took the Mac, she’d need to find a wireless network to get online — which makes up the bulk of the work she does on a computer.

On the other hand, I favor my iPad, despite that it’s a WiFi-only model. But one is not a replacement for the other. Using an iPad is an experience that’s hard to describe. You have to try it to understand; don’t listen to people who put the iPad down without actually trying it. I was skeptical because its touchscreen-based computing has some limitations that a netbook does not, which is why the two types of devices are not interchangeable. What an iPad offers is a wholly different experience.

Still, despite the survey results, netbook sales are down and, in comparison, iPad production could increase from its current rate of 1-1.5M units/month to 2.5M units/m. So maybe what the survey failed to ask was how many people who intended to buy an iPad bought a netbook?

Update: After posting this, I found the Retrevo survey summary link, and it appears that they did ask people whether they were leaning towards a netbook or iPad, and nearly 80% said the latter.

Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup — May 24, 2010

pic-white-iphone-4thgen

There’s been yet another “leak” of a possible prototype of the 4th-gen Apple iPhone. A photo (above) shows both a black and a white phone with larger screens. Given all the rumors and SDK evidence, it seems obvious that the OS 4 iPhone will have video calling and the larger screen resolution necessary to pull that off.

Fortunately, in just 2 weeks, all the speculation will be put to rest when Apple’s 5-day WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) kicks off on Jun 7th. Steve Jobs will start the event off with a keynote address to over 5,000 developers at the sold-out event. There’s an email circulating around the Web that’s supposedly from Jobs telling someone that “you won’t be disappointed,” in reference to what he’s probably planning to announce at the conference. I.e., probably the new iPhone, other features of the new SDK, and a mention of the countries where the iPad will by then be available.

What Jobs might not know is the new but celebrated iPad hasn’t only been banned in some countries but also in New York’s Yankee Stadium of all places. Apparently the stadium’s security policy considers the iPad to be in the laptop category, and laptops are not allowed in the stadium.

Has anyone told Yankee Stadium security that even the TSA (Transportation Safety Authority) differentiates between iPads and laptops? That’s actually a very disappointing fact. If more venues ban iPads, then carrying a tablet computer around might not become a common practice. I carry my iPad with me wherever I go, almost without fail. Now if I’m driving, I could always leave my iPad hidden somewhere, but if I’m walking or taking public transit — which is very likely in New York — then what am I supposed to do with it? Considering London will have full Wi-Fi access for the 20102 Olympics, I’m guessing they won’t be banning the iPad at venues there. Well, given that many Apple stores are sold out of the iPad, especially the 3G model, I’m guessing not a lot of people are going to be worried about this sort of ban, at least for now.

Is Apple stealing the market? Google announced last week that they were shutting down their online store and now Nokia is closing their flagship New York store. The Chicago store, on the other hand, is not closing. Wait a minute; doesn’t New York have a larger population than Chicago? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do the closing the other way around?

AT&T just got the Palm Pre Plus, but they’re charging $150 for it despite Verizon’s lower price. However, if you’re a new AT&T customer, you can get the phone for $50, but without the free Palm Touchstone charging dock. AT&T’s Pixi Plus will be available Jun 6th, to join the new AT&T Palm Pre Plus. The free Touchstone charge deal doesn’t apply to the Pixi Plus [Engadget]. If you get any smartphone from AT&T, be forewarned that they’ve increased the early termination fee from $175 to $325, effective Jun 1st — whether you’re a new subscriber or renewing your service.

The U.S. FTC finally approved Google’s purchase of mobile ad network AdMob Inc. While it took them six months to approve, the decision was partly to do with Apple’s own purchase of ad network Quattro Wireless. If I’m not mistaken, Apple’s purchase will result in their iAd network, announced at the same event earlier this year where Steve Jobs revealed some of the features that iPhone OS 4 would have.

The iPad might have a very long lasting battery but most smartphones seem to fizzle out in just a couple of hours of use. For example, the Palm Pre Plus I bought for it’s Mobile Hotspot feature (to power my WiFi-only iPad), has a battery that dies long, long before the iPad. But Google’s Larry Page recently said that if your Android-powered device isn’t lasting a day, there’s something wrong with your apps.

Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup — May 21, 2010

This is a stream-of-consciousness roundup of news in the mobile platform space from the past week. It covers Apple, Palm, Android and the mobile platform in general.

iPad sales in 2010 in the U.S. might hit 8M units, up from a previous estimate of 5M units [MacRumors]. Obviously, the international release is going to play a big factor in this, but at least iPad apps are now available internationally [Engadget]. Tablet devices in general could go from 7.6M units in 2010 to 46M units in 2014, according to IDC research [IDC]. To qualify as a “tablet” in IDC’s research, a mobile device must have a 7-12 inches in diagonal screen size and have no physical keyboard. IDC compares that figure to the nearly 400M portable PCs that they expect will ship in 2014. Also noteworthy is that while U.S. Mac sales were up nearly 40% [Fortune] in April 2010, iPads are outselling Macs [All Things Digital], are nearing iPhone sales levels, and are taking away iPod sales [Silicon Alley Insider].

iPad and general tablet device sales might be up, but DisplaySearch says that 376M touchscreen phones shipped in 2009 [Mobile Entertainment News]. Gartner Research says that mobile phone sales worldwide grew 17% in just Q1 2010 [Gartner]. With this rapid sales growth, it’s a bit refreshing to know that an extensive study does not conclusively tie cell phones to cancer [Bloomberg BusinessWeek]. Though unfortunately that doesn’t mean they don’t [Mobile Burn]

The number of Android-powered devices that Google is activating daily has increased from 30,000 last year to 100,000 now [TechCrunch]. Other news: there are now over 50K apps in the Android Marketplace, and with Google officially announcing Android 2.2 (Froyo) [MobileCrunch], that will increase. A couple of welcome changes with 2.2 include Internet tethering for carriers that choose to support it, and the ability to install apps on the SD card [PC World]. Google’s Android 3, aka Gingerbread, will be released in Q4 2010 [MobileBurn], thought it might actually be numbered as 2.3 or 2.5.

Adobe has revealed Flash 10.1 for Android-based mobile devices [Mashable], with the intent of showing Steve Jobs he’s wrong, that Flash can work smoothly on mobile phones [BusinessWeek]. Jobs’ issues with Flash is that it’s slow, power hungry, not touchscreen-enabled, and would cause mobile apps to crash. Now if they succeed in proving their point, and Jobs’ does rescind his ban, it still might be a year before iPhone OS devices get Flash, if ever. (Rumor is that Apple Mac computers will also stop supporting Adobe Flash, which is a serious disappointment to me as an Apple products owner and tech evangelist. While the fact is that Flash does crash regularly on both my PC and Mac, I’d still like the choice to view Flash-enabled Web sites, considering Hulu has yet to adopt the HTML5/ H.264 video format.)

Google’s Sergey Brin: Web and Native Mobile Apps Will Converge

logo-Google-io2010logo-300wGoogle is one of those few companies who can play the field when it comes to positioning themselves with apps for both Web and mobile platforms, but still believes that the two will converge and that essentially the Web will win. Hence, the company is putting efforts into not only their Android Marketplace but their new Chrome Web Store.

While some people feel that Google is competing with itself by promoting both the Chrome and Android app stores, the company said at Google I/O this week that it believes it’s keeping an open mind about the future. Google Co-founder Sergey Brin admits that right now the market wants native mobile apps, though with the progress of the HTML5 standard in terms of display graphics, and with Web apps capable of going offline, he feels that Web and native mobile apps will converge in the not too distant future.

Ultimately, at least for Google, Android will morph into Chrome OS. But before this can happen, it’ll take more powerful smartphones with larger resolution screens and the fleshing out the HTML5 standard.

Want to discuss a mobile Web or native mobile app for your business or projects? Feel free to contact us to discuss your app or mobile campaign needs.

Mobomo Mobisphere Roundup — May 17, 2010

flickr-globe-300w-croppedAccording to an ABI Research report, one billion people will have 4G cellular coverage by 2012. That’s compared to the just under 500M people who had coverage by year end 2009. [Via Softpedia]

It’s happened: According to the New York Times, cellphones are now used more for their data connection than for phone calls. Now that’s very interesting, considering that other statistics show that cellphones outnumber home phones, at least in the USA. So how are people making phone calls these days? Is anyone still talking, or does everyone chat through IM apps?

If you’re a TV fanatic to the point that you have a Hauppauge TV tuner card or external box for your computer, you can now use their WinTV v7.2 app’s Extend feature to stream TV content to your iPhone/ iPod Touch/ iPad device. Note that the app is not free, checking in at a price of US$9.95. [Hauppauge via SolSie] I have used an older Hauppauge external box to grab TV via coaxial cable, but not their newer devices which can capture analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC, QAM) over-the-air channels. Hauppage devices also work with the Orb content streaming Web service, which allows you to watch live and recorded TV anywhere from almost any web-enabled device. Though you will have to leave your computer on. Note: Some Hauppauge TV tuners only work on Win PCs.

AT&T is now offering a Palm Pre Plus phone that’s very similar to Verizon’s, with the exception of a SIM card slot for AT&T’s version. (Verizon runs on CDMA and thus their Pre Plus has no SIM card.) Not sure yet if AT&T will offer tethering via the Mobile Hotspot ability that Verizon now offers for free (which used to be $40/month). They don’t offer tethering for the iPhone — which is what led me to buy the Palm Pre Plus in the first plus — but if I’m not mistaken, do offer it for select Android devices. Now while the AT&T version is more expensive than the Verizon version, you do get a Touchstone charger for free. PocketNow has a video review of the phone.

Image: Flickr.

iPhone as Car Remote

The Nissan Leaf is an electric car that’ll be getting an iPhone app with two initial features: letting you know when it’s all charged up, and allowing you to control the in-car climate. It’ll be interesting to see what comes next for the app, but there are a whole host of possibilities, including using paying for parking, finding the car easily in large parking lots, and much more.

Now if Apple goes ahead and adds NFC (Near-Field Communication, a close cousin to RFID) chips to the next generations of iPhones — which some recent patents hint at — there are additional possibilities, including being able to lock and unlock your car with your iPhone, and maybe even remote starting, for those colder days.

In short, the iPhone becomes a car remote control unit. Unfortunately, all the computerized features in cars today mean hacker attacks on your car might increase in the future, and smartphone integration aids the proces.

Nissan is not the only car maker with iPhone integration in the works, though Ford was recently told it’ll have to wait a year to get the necessary communications chip from Apple, for it’s Sync system.

[Via: MobileCrunch]

Hybrid Smartphones: Android on iPhone Devices?

Sounds crazy, but a couple of mobile developers have managed to successful port the Google Android mobile OS to iPhone devices. One of them even has a dual-booting system, and should be releasing a version for iPod Touch. The only drawback is that you’d have to do something to your mobile device that Apple says is a no no: jailbreak it. But the experiments developers have been doing on iPhone OS devices, including iPad, just goes to show that Apple is dumbing down the capabilities, but for what purpose, I’m not sure. Why have a device with certain features that most owners will never access? Or is it a way for Apple to test what people might want in the future, since jailbreakers tend to be extremely tech savvy power users, whose activities hint at desirable features?

[Via: The Next Web]

Send in the (Apple iPad) Clones

Apple-iPad-300wEven if you have no interest in Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, you probably can’t get away from news about it, so you probably already know that it’s pretty hard to get your hands on one, even in the United States. International availability will be done in phases, and it seems the date keeps getting pushed forwards, making a longer wait. But if you’re not sold on the iPad, there’ll be a number of competitors offering similar devices, and probably fairly quickly.

Currently, no less than Sony, Google, Nokia, RIM and BT (British Telecom), are considering releasing an iPad competitor, according to various online sources. Dell’s Streak tablet (5″, 7″, 10″ versions) will be out fairly soon, especially in Europe. HP just bought Palm and seemingly scrapped their Windows 7 tablet project shortly afterwards. I wouldn’t be surprised if they soon have a tablet with Palm WebOS out in the future. And of course there are a while slew of other companies with tablet devices already out, including Fusion Garage’s JooJoo and Aigo’s N700.

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