Archive for: mobile internet
- December 16, 2009 6:44 am
Here we are thinking that some big money making corporate machine such as AT&T was going to launch the first HSPA+ network in the states. It takes money to put up and support all of the physical and digital mojo behind such a network which is why the obvious default to the countries largest GSM provider was a given — or so we thought. Thanks to BendBroadband, a central Oregon cable company, the US does now in fact have the sweet, speedy waves of HSPA+ blanketing the fortunate few. Those lucky enough to have found themselves in central Oregon and also a customer of BendBroadband will find their mobile browsing speeds somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8Mbps down.
Wondering if you’re covered?
- North to south coverage: From Madras to La Pine.
- East to west coverage: From Prineville to Sisters.
What’s nice for central Oregon users eying a possible switch to BendBroadband is that the region in the northwest and even far west as a whole isn’t exactly a wireless hotbed. I mean, coverage on any carrier isn’t as bullet proof as the maps show for central and eastern residents of the US. (Anyone care to chime in?)
One thing is for sure, the added competition that just popped up in Oregon is a god send to the area. If any central Oregon natives were feeling down because of a lack in carrier selections or mobile broadband speeds, they can now feel exponentially better about themselves. They’ve just gone from the back of the pack to the front in no time flat.
Now if only BendBroadband would go national…
**Update: As mentioned below by Frank, the service is for fixed routers or USB modems.
**Update 2: Unlocked devices in the AWS spectrum are game as well!
Cellular-News
Yes folks, another follow-up. This time it’s the good boys and girls over at WolframAlpha, the intelligent, thinking search engine. If you recall, the big stink was raised yesterday when WA pulled their mobile optimized page leaving the normal page the sole solution for mobile users. To make matters worse, they made it so you were starring at a massive page filling ad encouraging you to purchase the $50 (yes that’s $50 with two digits to the left of the decimal) iPhone app. Well, there’s a problem with that. The app had to be clicked on to get around for starters. Other knocks include a sub-par browsing experience on the full version of the site via a mobile device. And finally, no mention of the change was posted on their blog, catching users off guard. ReadWriteWeb’s Frederic Lardinois got a chance to talk to WolframAlpha’s iPhone app product manager, Schoeller Porter. Porter defends the action saying…
- November 17, 2009 6:39 pm
Love your cellphone/smartphone because it gives you relatively ad-free hours of internet exploration and usage? I’ll admit it’s not my first praise for using a smartphone for getting around the internet, but it’s certainly one of my top reasonings. That’s all set to change for the worse in the near future. The impending doom is coming to us thanks to AdMob and their new “Interactive Video Ad Units” which more or less translate to “pain in the ass” for you and I. Ads make freemium models possible and allow end users to enjoy many fruits at free or reduced cost. So ads certainly have their place. But AdMob’s new “Interactive Video Ad Units” are anything but pleasant. The first category of IVAU consist of your typical manually activated video ads in which the end user has to initiate playback. But the second category is the one that really has me not looking forward to the day these arrive — automatically activated videos.
Navigating the web (as often as I do) has me wasting minutes upon minutes per day sitting, waiting, and watching stupid video ads that I can’t skip or even “look around”. My smartphone is the last frontier if you will as it is unbound or polluted with this digital filth. Such joys won’t be enjoyable much longer. Gee I can hardly wait, sitting on the train/bus/walking around town trying to read a quick review on a restaurant only to be greeted with an un-skippable 60 second ad seems like a blast. /sarcasm.
Mobile ads are good in certain instances. Automatic, forced video ads? Not so much. Are you dreading the day?
Internet Evolution
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- November 17, 2009 1:37 pm
Whenever “the man” decides to throw citizens a bone, especially a digital/tech bone, it becomes necessary to applaud and mention such an effort. WiFi has proliferated cities and towns across the world bringing *mostly* free internet to many. If you happen to be one of the fine residents of Swindon, UK, your mobile browsing should now be a lot more pleasant. A joint venture between the public taxpayer and private funders has made way for a 1,400 access point strong WiFi network blanketing Swindon and bringing free internet to more than 186,000 individuals.
Is this reason to drop your home internet provider? If you can get a strong enough signal and are ok doing everything under public scrutiny then by all means. I however am slightly hesitant to move solely to public owned internet. However, if my home DSL keeps raising in price and my fine city decides to try this little deal out themselves, I couldn’t say I would be tempted. Still, the fact that such a large city now has city-wide, free internet is definitely something worth getting excited over.
With so much land to cover and users to support, it would be interesting to know how the network is coping with said factors. Does anyone living in Swindon feel like sharing their experience in regards to performance, latency, and so on?
TechDigest > The Guardian
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- November 13, 2009 11:29 am
I remember the day that I read about the rumors of a touchscreen BlackBerry. I was sitting in Chicago O’Hare Airport waiting for a flight to Houston. At that time, scouring the specs on BGR’s site left my jaw dropping and my heart racing. That was the pinnacle of my CrackBerry days. I have since moved on to many different platforms though my enthusiasm for the BlackBerry platform has never truly waned. All it will take is one breakthrough device (with better software of course) and my lusts will again be turned to the Canadian born giant again.
Rumors of an end all be all BlackBerry are nothing new. Well over a year has gone by since they first started circulating. But this time, a research note by Shaw Wu, a Kaufmen Bros. analyst, cites various “contracts in the industry” and parts suppliers who all claim or depict a touchscreen + sliding qwerty Berry. A phone just like the Droid but with a better keyboard and who knows what else? I’d love to see one.
Along with the obvious excitement over a touchscreen + qwerty BlackBerry, this new rumored BlackBerry (Is this the often rumored BlackBerry 9900?) device will surely come with a completely revamped WebKit browser. A new browser also isn’t a surprise per say as RIM’s recent acquisition of Torch Mobile — a company that developed a webkit browser — all but confirms it’s coming to BlackBerry devices in the not too distant future. RIM knows they need a new browser. Their current one sucks. With the iPhone and Android browsers being two of the top mobile browsers, both based on webkit, means RIM can’t afford not to. The device is currently in “prototype state” so any immediate release is out of the question. But next year its on…
CrackBerry meltdown in 3..2..
Electronista
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- November 10, 2009 8:06 am
If you thought the mobile OS wars had chosen their sides and alliances already, you’ve got another thing comin’. Samsung has announced that this December, they will be releasing their new in-house OS called “Bada” (meaning “Ocean” in Korean). This new OS will come with it’s own SDK so that developers can get right on making Bada all that Samsung hopes it can become. If you’re asking yourself if we really need another OS go sit in the corner fora few minutes. Of course we do. Further splitting apart the market and creating more headaches for devs looking to support more than one platform aside, end users presented with another choice is always a good thing. Bada will supposedly be replacing Symbian and WinMo in their product lineup though no mention of Samsung + Android devices was detailed. Also MIA are any screenshots or teaser pictures to get us excited. I can understand keeping it a secret and building hype, but I’m sure most of us would just rather see an early pic. Hey, let’s not forget that attempts to drum up hype often end badly. I’m eager to see what Samsung has been working on. I just hope it isn’t released with a press release full of fluffed up wording and under-performing substance. Wow us Samsung. Do not disappoint.
Unwired
- November 6, 2009 10:43 am
Those enough who either don’t want a higher end smartphone or simply can’t afford one know that on your mid to lower-end devices web browsing is a chore. Pages render like crap, it takes forever to open a simple link, etc. Many phones as of late are capable of running some form or another of the Opera browser whether it be the free, almost universal Opera Mini to the more desktop-like Opera Mobile variant. Either way, Opera while not quite the reckoning force it would like to be in the desktop arena is certainly a large force in the mobile sphere.
The iPhone already has an amazing browser with Mobile Safari. But does that mean someone else couldn’t come along and do better? Without a doubt, no. If you haven’t gathered yet, I’m leading to a potential release of Opera on the iPhone platform — if Apple loosens the restrictions that is. Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s CEO has come forward and announced that his company has already developed a fully working iPhone version of Opera. What isn’t immediately clear however is how this browser works. Is it more like a server side browser which pre-renders and crunches pages like Opera Mini? Or is it a more robust offering akin to the higher-end Opera Mobile? An Opera Mini-esque version would speed up iPhone browsing even more while greatly reducing load on the carriers’ networks. (AT&T turns and takes notice). Meanwhile, a version based off of Opera Mobile would I assume bring many enhancements and functionality that currently lacks in Mobile Safari. I wouldn’t rule out a touched up UI either. So how soon can we expect this?
Don’t get too excited yet folks. Apple’s SDK strictly prohibits any apps from duplicating the functionality of native iPhone apps which means any full, third party browser hasn’t the slightest chance of making it through the ban hammer that is the App Store approval process. When questioned as to if Opera has reached out to Apple, Mr. Tetzchner said that “at the time” (eluding to earlier this past year) the company had not attempted to contact Apple. Have they contacted Apple or even attempted to in the last few weeks or months? That’s anybodies guess. For now, the Opera team is sitting on this fully capable and most likely awesome browser that sadly won’t see the light of day anytime soon — if ever. Still, if Apple does ever open up in that sense, Opera will be right there ready and waiting.
Electric Pig > The Register
- November 3, 2009 10:13 am
I’m not going to sugar coat this subject at all. When will carriers such as Orange stop fucking customers over? Case in point, just look at their BS excuse for an iPhone agreement…
Not to be used for other activities (eg using your handset as a modem, non-Orange internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer to peer file sharing, non-Orange internet based video). Should such use be detected notice may be given and Network protection controls applied to all services which Orange does not believe constitutes mobile browsing.”
I’d advise anyone even thinking of giving orange your money to not do so. Falsely marketing an unlimited plans that is unlimited is crap. If you’re going to cap it and restrict certain features, then market it as such — a 750MB data plan — not unlimited. Further adding insult to injury as well as more reasons to stay far form this epic failure is that most of the iPhone’s features that make the iPhone what it is are strictly forbidden. Such simple and mundane things as IM, any msuic streaming apps like Slacker, Last.fm, Spotify, video streaming of any kind, and generally any other useful apps one could think of using are officially “illegal” according to Orange’s ToS.
Why even bother releasing an iPhone if your going to outlaw 95% of what the phone is designed and marketed to do? To steal money from you, plain and simple. If they can play off of your emotions by sucking you in with a nice shiny toy, they’ve got you hooked. Do yourself a favor, call up Orange Exec’s/carpet bomb HQ with strong words of disapproval. So how many potential and current Orange users are feeling throughly angered by Orange?
If Orange really wants to cash in on the iPhone craze, false advertising and trying to trick and corner customers is generally not the best policy…
Geeky-Gadgets > BBC
Penetrating and actually turning a buck in the lucrative and downright massive mobile user market in China has been the dream of many cellphone manufacturers. Given the Chinese government’s tight control however, such dreams have stayed at just that as stiff regulations and often odd rules make entering the market so difficult some manufacturers simply stay away. One such manufacturer who is trying their luck is Apple. As many of you know, they’re been trying to tap the Chinese market for some time now but have so fare been unsuccessful. We all also know that Apple recently struck a deal with China Unicom to sell the iPhone 3GS in China, a big win for Apple. But is it really that much of a win for Chinese customers?
Now why would I raise such a silly question? Chinese mobile users have been able to get unlocked iPhone 3GS’s with WiFi from street side vendors for roughly 5,700 yuan ($835 USD). The new official phones from China Unicom are coming in hot and heavy but lacking WiFi. Yup, pass. Even worse, prices for Unicom’s iPhone are grossly higher — between 4,999 yuan ($730 USD) and 6,999 yuan ($1,025 USD)! Why would anyone want to spend more for less? Beats me. It’s hard to say if China Unicom’s iPhone’s will/won’t be a big hit. I can honestly see both scenarios. (1) It sells well because now every has a legitimate source to get it or (2) it’s so expensive that people flock to street vendors who understandably have limited quantities thereby driving up price. If the latter plays out, maybe rising street prices will limit the sting from picking up China Unicom’s neutered version. After getting this far in, I’m sure you’re wondering why the iPhone 3GS from China Unicom doesn’t have WiFi.
It’s simple really. At the time, Beijing banned WiFi because they were working on their own version. That’s it. That has since been abandoned (please correct me if I’m wrong) and as such the ban has been lifted. By the time the ban was lifted however, China Unicom’s iPhones had already started production. Bummer I know. It’s just a reason to wait for the next version of the iPhone which Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, stated “We hope to have WiFi in the next version”. Some comfort I guess.
Cellular-News
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