The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘at&t’

AT&T and Motorola this morning confirmed earlier rumors that the BACKFLIP with MOTOBLUR will be available in online and in AT&T stores across the nation, beginning March 7.

This is the first Android handset for the carrier.
The device will go for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate.

More information, pictures etc. are available here.

Also check out our hands-on review of the phone.

This morning, twenty four of the world’s largest telecom companies announced their plans to create the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), a unified open platform that lets developers build an application once, and deploy it to work on any carrier, device, and OS. The roster of supporters include many of the biggest names in the business: AT&T, China Mobile, Orange, Verizon, Sprint, and many other operators around the globe, as well as device manufacturers LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson, all of whom are teaming up to take on Apple’s App Store dominance. In short, it sounds like a miracle for mobile developers.

If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is. Andy Rubin, Google VP of Engineering (and the man in charge of Android) has already shared his skepticism, saying, “There is always a dream that you could write [a program] once and [have it] run anywhere and history has proven that that dream has not been fully realised and I am sceptical that it ever will be“. To put it another way, this is a pipe dream from carriers looking to loosen Apple’s stranglehold over mobile applications and there’s very little chance that it’s going to work.

First, there are the obvious issues of fragmentation. Android itself is already having to deal with this problem, as various device manufacturers and carriers lag behind in rolling out the latest system updates, and developers are forced to tweak their applications to accommodate the differences in each device. And these are phones that are on the same platform. With the WAC — which is actually supposed to “unite a fragmented marketplace” — these fragmentation problems will probably be much, much worse.

Every time the WAC platform is updated, you’ll probably have to wait for your phone’s operating system maker to update their software. And you’ll have to wait for your carrier to deploy it in an OTA update (if they don’t push these over the air, then most people will probably never update and the market will get even more fragmented). Even if these updates are painless, developers will have to deal with dozens, or even hundreds, of different devices. They’ll have to take into account the myriad display resolutions, input options (does it have a keyboard or trackball?), and processing power available. Does the device support background applications? How about GPS? You get the picture.

And then there are the problems with the applications themselves. At this point the form that the WAC platform will take is nebulous, so it’s hard to make predictions. But based on my experience using other ‘unified’ platforms, like Adobe Air, I’m guessing that these applications are going to be sacrificing some horsepower for compatibility. And I’m also guessing rich games — which constitute most of App Store’s most popular applications — aren’t going to run very well.

Which leaves us with applications that are good for more basic tasks.  But really, there’s already a platform that works on every smartphone: the web. As HTML5 becomes more widely adopted, web applications are getting more like native applications every day. And by the time the WAC platform comes to fruition, which will probably take years, these web technologies (and the devices running them) are only going to be more advanced.

One last thing: while Apple likes to frequently point out just how many applications it has on the App Store, this number is pretty meaningless (which has been pointed out numerous times before). If each of these competing mobile platforms had 100 really good applications that covered the most popular use-cases, they’d probably be a lot better off than having a hundred thousand apps that work decently well. These mobile operators should stop worrying about the size of their App Stores and start offering incentives to developers to build high quality applications, and then make the user experience to download and pay for these apps as seamless as possible.

Chatroulette appeared in the last couple of days – a sort of Hot Or Not for random Webcam chats with random strangers. Visit the site and you’re suddenly connected in a video chat with someone randomly selected.

You can of course hit the “next” button and move on to find somebody more interesting – or better looking. As one might imagine, it’s led to a lot of exhibitionists and voyeurs tuning in and a whole heap of unsavoury characters, as blogger Jason Kottke has noted.

That danger of course makes it pretty addictive to some, but now there’s a (ok, only slightly) safer version just launched, which is in fact a re-animation of a site that went pop only recently, namely PopJam.

Just the other day, AT&T announced that it was able to work with Sling Media in order to optimize Sling player for AT&T’s 3G network.

The rest is here: 
AT&T may have fibbed regarding Sling player for iPhone

A recent AT&T earnings call consisted of a lot of talk talk talk but one slide stands out: it essentially admits that 3G in San Francisco and New York sucked ween AKA were both far below their official performance objective.

Excerpt from:
Holy wow! AT&T admits NYC/San Fran 3G service sucked

One of the small surprises of the iPad announcement was that it was running on Apple’s own custom silicon. Well, that’s true to an extent, but it’s not like Apple actually invented the processor in-house. It’s just not OEM hardware

Read the rest here: 
Apple’s A4 processor is in ARM family tree with Snapdragon, Tegra

So you own the New Jersey Nets and you have a few billion in assets. And you’re Russian.

Read the rest here:
Russia’s richest oligarch wants to launch a city car

Did you know that your USB cable can be used to connect your phone to the Internet and bring over ringtones? I know, right? Amazing! But unless you own pro grade cable, you might as well be carrying your data over in a feces-smeared galvanized bucket scrounged up from a burned-down rendering plant! Enter this professional grade data cable for $8.99

Originally posted here: 
NotSoCrunchDeals: Super special, ultrafast HTC Bravo charging cable! USB 2.0! Pro grade!

Today, during the unveiling of the iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that you’ll be able to get an iPad that has both Wi-Fi and 3G access, meaning you can download new content from nearly anywhere. That’s great news. The not-so-good? It’s powered by AT&T, which has been absolutely notorious for already being unable to cope with the 3G data usage of the iPhone. This sure isn’t going to help things.

However, there are some upsides. For one, this internet access will not be based on a contract — you’ll sign up for the 3G access directly from the device, paying on a monthly basis. You’ll have two options for dataplans: a not-too-impressive 250 Megabytes for $15.00, or Unlimited downloads for $29.99 (though that will almost certainly have an unwritten cap as well). And you’ll be able to use AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots, free of charge. You’ll also be able to use these internationally — iPad 3G models will be unlocked, and will included GSM micro SIMS.

It’s worth pointing out that most of what you’ll be doing with the iPad will consist of consuming content and surfing the web. Unlike the iPhone, where a dropped connection can result in cutting off an important phone call, a lost data connection on the iPad will probably just mean your website stops loading halfway. That said, the increased strain could make things even worse for iPhone users.

Also note that while the iPad starts at $499, 3G models cost an extra $130, so the cheapest you’ll get is $629 for a 16GB model.

Steve Jobs revealed the Apple iPad today, its much-awaited tablet computer (see our live notes). Jobs positions it as a third computing device between a laptop and a smartphone geared towards the “key tasks” of Web browsing, email, sharing photos, watching videos, playing games, and reading digital books. All current iPhone apps will run on the device, as well as new games and digital books designed specifically for it. An enhanced iPhone SDK released today will support both the iPhone and the iPad.

Some specs: The device has a 9.7 inch display, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is half-an-inch thick. It is powered by new chip made by Apple itself, a 1 GHz A4 and will come with 16Gb to 64 GB of storage. It supports WiFi, has an accelerometer, compass, and built-in speaker and microphone, just like the iPhone. The screen is a full capacitive multi-touch screen. Battery life is supposed to be 10 hours. In addition to WiFi, it will have a 3G option from AT&T. The Wifi-only version, with 16GB of memory, will cost $499. A 32GB version will be $599, 64 GB will be $699, and with 3G from AT&T it will cost $829 (for the 64GB version). AT&T will offer two data plans: $14.99a month for 250 MB of data or $29.99 for unlimited. All the 3G iPads, however, will be unlocked, meaning they can be used on other carriers as well.

On-stage, Apple highlighted the iPad’s use as a digital reader. The iPad comes with a new app called iBooks and an iBooks store. Apple partnered with five publishers to make books available for sale through the iBooks store. “Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this technology,”says Jobs referring to the Kindle. “We’re gonna stand on their shoulders and go farther.” The iBooks support the ePub format, allows readers to flip through pages and supports pictures, video, and other graphics. The first book available will cost $14.99.

It is clear one of the main functions of the iPad will be as a reading device. Martin Nisenholtz from the New York Times showed its own app onstage for the iPad, which looks like a larger, lusher version of the one which is now available on the iPhone. “This is the next version of digital journalism,” declares Nisenholtz. We’ll see.