by Nancy Gohring
Some of the new applications loaded to the Android Market since it opened on Monday don't work very well, crash the phone, aren't particularly elegant and in one case, uses commands written in Chinese.
But the good applications should ultimately outweigh the bad as developers make improvements to their applications and as the community matures, analysts say.
The G1, the first phone to run Google's Android open-source software, went on sale last week by T-Mobile USA.
"I believe it will evolve much the way Linux did," said Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group. In the early days of Linux, developers produced a lot of low-quality applications, he said. With enough bad comments from the community about the applications, developers either improved them or pulled them, he said. Already, many applications in the Android Market have been updated based on user comments.
The Android Market, where phone users shop for and download applications, initially included only applications that Google had approved. But on Monday, the market opened to any developer who, after paying a US$25 registration fee, could upload any application.
Since then, many new applications have appeared, including several calculators, to-do lists, weather applications, tip calculators, budget planning tools and flashlights.
JogTracker, an application that uses the GPS (Global Positioning System) in the phone to map out a runner's route and show distance, works quite well. Another, Gmote, has gotten rave reviews from people who use the application as a remote control for their computers. Users who have a computer connected to their TVs for streaming video find the application especially useful.
While most of the top-ranked applications are those that appeared before the market opened to any developer, a few new ones including a notepad, a dictionary, a language translator and a Yellow Pages application have made it near the top of the list.
The rating system in the Android Market, which lets Google include a list of applications based on popularity, is an important feature in such an open environment, analysts said. "Communities do a good job of weeding out the chaff from the wheat," said Howe.
That should help users focus on the better applications and ignore the others. "If [bad applications] start to be a preponderance of what people get and if they get frustrated, people won't stand for it. It's not worth their time to fight through the bad applications," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner.
Some of the applications that don't work so well include DroidRecord, which should record audio but doesn't for some people. AReader is an ebook reader that some users have had trouble with. Some buttons in the application launch windows with instructions in Chinese.
Other applications seem like very early versions. Statusinator is an application designed to let users update their Facebook status and photos. The description apologizes for how cumbersome it is to use: "login is complicated (sorry!). In short, press 'menu,' then click 'login,' 'authorize status updates,' and then 'authorize photos.' Each will open a Facebook Web page in which you'll have to confirm the action."
The appearance of faulty or low quality applications in the market is a result of its openness, and makes the market different than Apple's iPhone App Store. Developers must submit their applications to Apple, which examines them and decides whether to include them in the store. That helps ensure that mostly quality applications appear there, Dulaney said.
However, applications in the Android Market have the potential for more functionality than apps in Apple's store because Android developers can access more phone functions, such as the dialer, Howe said. SpellDial, for instance, is an Android application that lets users spell out and then call someone from their contacts list using the on screen touch number keypad. Without SpellDial, G1 users must slide open the keyboard to type out a name that they want to find and call from their contacts list.
In addition since anyone can build a phone around Android, applications could take advantage of various hardware innovations. While that's not the case for Apple developers, who are stuck with just one set of hardware specifications, that's also a benefit for Apple. Developers build iPhone applications based on one set of specifications describing the size of the screen and other features, so their applications are sure to work on all iPhones.
By contrast, it's unclear what will happen once there are multiple phones running Android on the market. Presumably the phones will have difference hardware capabilities, so not all applications will work on all Android phones. If there remains just one Android Market to serve all phones, that could create problems. "You might have to read a list of requirements to decide if the application will run," Howe noted.
That means some users could end up buying applications that can't run on their phones. Google has a provision for that, though. The current Android Market terms state that anyone can return an application within 24 hours for a full refund. For now, all applications in the market are free but by the first quarter next year Google plans to roll out a mechanism so that developers can charge for their applications.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
BlackBerry fund backs three startups
by Nancy Gohring
The BlackBerry Partners Fund, launched earlier this year, announced its first investments in companies that support mobile commerce, help travelers and offer location-based entertainment information.
The fund, sponsored by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Thomson Reuters and Royal Bank of Canada, has US$150 million to invest in companies developing mobile applications and services primarily, but not exclusively, for BlackBerry devices, said Kevin Talbot, co-managing partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. The investments are a rare bright spot for startups in an otherwise gloomy economic environment.
WorldMate, a New Zealand company, got $8 million from the BlackBerry fund, Motorola Ventures and AMC Communications to expand its operations. WorldMate offers a mobile travel application that alerts users when planes or trains are delayed or canceled. Users can find and book flights or hotels nearby based on location information. A free application is advertising- and affiliate-supported, and a subscription buys a gold package with more features.
WorldMate is already available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm OS phone users.
The Blackberry fund, along with a few other partners including Qualcomm Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Monitor Ventures, invested $3.2 million in Buzzd, a location-sensitive entertainment service. Users can find and read user reviews about local events and venues. The service is already available through all the major U.S. operators, but the investment will fund further development of the client version, said John Albright, co-managing partner of the fund.
The third company the fund invested in is Digbee, a provider of a mobile commerce platform. Phone users can download the software that lets them buy from retailers featured in the Digbee mall. But retailers can also offer self-branded versions of the client for customized shopping. The client links to the phone's contacts list so users can choose an address from the list to send purchases to.
The BlackBerry fund and existing investors at Eyes of Texas partners awarded Digbee a $5.5 million investment.
The companies met the criteria that the fund managers look for, said Talbot. "These four things, which frankly economic crisis or not are hallmarks of good venture investing, are things we consider," he said.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund is looking for companies that are appropriately valued and are cash-efficient. "We are insisting that companies be adequately capitalized, which means having enough capital to weather a prolonged situation in the economy," he said.
The fund also considers the end-user of the service or product to make sure that the target customer base is likely to remain strong.
Finally, the fund is making sure to invest with partners that have good funding. "We're being selective with our syndicate partners. We're seeking out high-quality investors that have the venture capital and that will be able to stay with our company in the long haul," Talbot said.
The criteria should be heartening to solid startups looking for funding, he said. "A good company will always get financed, regardless of what's happening in the economy," he said.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund, launched earlier this year, announced its first investments in companies that support mobile commerce, help travelers and offer location-based entertainment information.
The fund, sponsored by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Thomson Reuters and Royal Bank of Canada, has US$150 million to invest in companies developing mobile applications and services primarily, but not exclusively, for BlackBerry devices, said Kevin Talbot, co-managing partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. The investments are a rare bright spot for startups in an otherwise gloomy economic environment.
WorldMate, a New Zealand company, got $8 million from the BlackBerry fund, Motorola Ventures and AMC Communications to expand its operations. WorldMate offers a mobile travel application that alerts users when planes or trains are delayed or canceled. Users can find and book flights or hotels nearby based on location information. A free application is advertising- and affiliate-supported, and a subscription buys a gold package with more features.
WorldMate is already available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm OS phone users.
The Blackberry fund, along with a few other partners including Qualcomm Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Monitor Ventures, invested $3.2 million in Buzzd, a location-sensitive entertainment service. Users can find and read user reviews about local events and venues. The service is already available through all the major U.S. operators, but the investment will fund further development of the client version, said John Albright, co-managing partner of the fund.
The third company the fund invested in is Digbee, a provider of a mobile commerce platform. Phone users can download the software that lets them buy from retailers featured in the Digbee mall. But retailers can also offer self-branded versions of the client for customized shopping. The client links to the phone's contacts list so users can choose an address from the list to send purchases to.
The BlackBerry fund and existing investors at Eyes of Texas partners awarded Digbee a $5.5 million investment.
The companies met the criteria that the fund managers look for, said Talbot. "These four things, which frankly economic crisis or not are hallmarks of good venture investing, are things we consider," he said.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund is looking for companies that are appropriately valued and are cash-efficient. "We are insisting that companies be adequately capitalized, which means having enough capital to weather a prolonged situation in the economy," he said.
The fund also considers the end-user of the service or product to make sure that the target customer base is likely to remain strong.
Finally, the fund is making sure to invest with partners that have good funding. "We're being selective with our syndicate partners. We're seeking out high-quality investors that have the venture capital and that will be able to stay with our company in the long haul," Talbot said.
The criteria should be heartening to solid startups looking for funding, he said. "A good company will always get financed, regardless of what's happening in the economy," he said.
Monday, October 27, 2008
How to treat the love affair offered by the third one like that in the film Painted Skin?
Hello， morning
It is a quite difficult topic, since it happens frequently in this modern society. No one can say they can absolutely avoid this situation.As modern society brings us with human right, it at the same time takes the human right of some other people. Modern people become more and more self-oriented and think less for people around them.
Since a third one in love relationship and marriage becomes more common, some people think it rational to accept a third one and attribute the mistake to the third one. They will say that the third one offers first. It is quite ridiculous. But we can not say that in this world there is no kind people, there is, they are who can resist the third one and insist in the family and his wife(her husband). In whatever society, morality is eternal good quality. Bad marality is not against the law, but the conscience will be scolded.
It is a quite difficult topic, since it happens frequently in this modern society. No one can say they can absolutely avoid this situation.As modern society brings us with human right, it at the same time takes the human right of some other people. Modern people become more and more self-oriented and think less for people around them.
Since a third one in love relationship and marriage becomes more common, some people think it rational to accept a third one and attribute the mistake to the third one. They will say that the third one offers first. It is quite ridiculous. But we can not say that in this world there is no kind people, there is, they are who can resist the third one and insist in the family and his wife(her husband). In whatever society, morality is eternal good quality. Bad marality is not against the law, but the conscience will be scolded.
Product review: Nokia E71 3G smartphone
by Ginny Mies
As Nokia's very first 3G phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, the US$500 E71 is an all-around improvement on its predecessor, the E61. It not only has a sleeker and more sophisticated curved design, but it packs a multitude of features ideal for both business and personal use.
This candy-bar phone is remarkably slim at 0.4 inch thick and fits as easily in your hand as it does in your pocket. And at a light 4.4 ounces, it won't weigh you down. Call quality on my end was generally very good, but some callers on the other end reported that my voice sounded tinny. I also noticed an echo in some calls. In the PC World Test Center's trials, the battery lasted 4 hours, 50 minutes--on a par with other 3G smart phones.
The E71's keyboard is smaller than the E61's, but a colleague with larger hands had no trouble using it. The raised, tactile keys enable quick and easy typing.
Nokia has made the sometimes confusing Symbian S60 platform more user-friendly by including customizable shortcut keys and a standby screen. You can access your home page, calendar, address book, and e-mail from the dedicated shortcut keys on the keyboard. These keys can be customized to launch another application of your choice. And holding down a shortcut key for a few seconds triggers a different action. For example, holding down the calendar key lets you enter a new appointment. You can add up to 15 shortcuts on the E71's standby screen. A new Switch mode allows you to create two separate standby screens to accommodate the business and personal sectors of your life. And finding a contact in your phone is as simple as typing the first few letters of their name.
The Web browser loads quickly, and pages look sharp on the E71's 2.3-inch QVGA screen. The d-pad offers easy mouse maneuvering, and Nokia's Mini Map feature, which zooms out to a full screen view of the entire page, is helpful for speedy navigation. Just find the section you want and zoom in.
Setting up personal e-mail is a snap, but business e-mail requires your IT department's assistance. The free Nokia Exchange client synchronizes your phone with push e-mail, contacts, and calendar appointments from Microsoft Exchange, but you cannot access e-mail subfolders--something I find baffling in a business phone. The E71 supports e-mail accounts from over a thousand ISPs as well as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail.
Many of the E71's applications, such as the Music Store and Push-to-Talk, are not available to American users. The inclusion of Nokia Maps 2.0 is a real gem, however. Turn-by-turn pedestrian and car navigation, voice guidance, satellite maps, and multimedia city guides are just a few of the features of Nokia Maps.
You can also share photos and videos via the preinstalled Ovi and Flickr applications, but given the camera quality, you might not want to. Pictures I took with the E71's 3.2-megapixel camera came out grainy and dark, particularly in bright environments.
The music players' audio quality is good, and it offers features such as an equalizer and balance control. Videos stored in the device's memory or on a card play smoothly in RealPlayer; however, flash videos in YouTube tend to skip frequently.
Unfortunately, the E71 comes at a steep price, as it is not currently offered by any U.S. carriers. You'll have to drop around $500 for it, so it is important to evaluate exactly what you want out of it. But overall, the E71 shines as a stylish device that does more than the average business phone.
As Nokia's very first 3G phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, the US$500 E71 is an all-around improvement on its predecessor, the E61. It not only has a sleeker and more sophisticated curved design, but it packs a multitude of features ideal for both business and personal use.
This candy-bar phone is remarkably slim at 0.4 inch thick and fits as easily in your hand as it does in your pocket. And at a light 4.4 ounces, it won't weigh you down. Call quality on my end was generally very good, but some callers on the other end reported that my voice sounded tinny. I also noticed an echo in some calls. In the PC World Test Center's trials, the battery lasted 4 hours, 50 minutes--on a par with other 3G smart phones.
The E71's keyboard is smaller than the E61's, but a colleague with larger hands had no trouble using it. The raised, tactile keys enable quick and easy typing.
Nokia has made the sometimes confusing Symbian S60 platform more user-friendly by including customizable shortcut keys and a standby screen. You can access your home page, calendar, address book, and e-mail from the dedicated shortcut keys on the keyboard. These keys can be customized to launch another application of your choice. And holding down a shortcut key for a few seconds triggers a different action. For example, holding down the calendar key lets you enter a new appointment. You can add up to 15 shortcuts on the E71's standby screen. A new Switch mode allows you to create two separate standby screens to accommodate the business and personal sectors of your life. And finding a contact in your phone is as simple as typing the first few letters of their name.
The Web browser loads quickly, and pages look sharp on the E71's 2.3-inch QVGA screen. The d-pad offers easy mouse maneuvering, and Nokia's Mini Map feature, which zooms out to a full screen view of the entire page, is helpful for speedy navigation. Just find the section you want and zoom in.
Setting up personal e-mail is a snap, but business e-mail requires your IT department's assistance. The free Nokia Exchange client synchronizes your phone with push e-mail, contacts, and calendar appointments from Microsoft Exchange, but you cannot access e-mail subfolders--something I find baffling in a business phone. The E71 supports e-mail accounts from over a thousand ISPs as well as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail.
Many of the E71's applications, such as the Music Store and Push-to-Talk, are not available to American users. The inclusion of Nokia Maps 2.0 is a real gem, however. Turn-by-turn pedestrian and car navigation, voice guidance, satellite maps, and multimedia city guides are just a few of the features of Nokia Maps.
You can also share photos and videos via the preinstalled Ovi and Flickr applications, but given the camera quality, you might not want to. Pictures I took with the E71's 3.2-megapixel camera came out grainy and dark, particularly in bright environments.
The music players' audio quality is good, and it offers features such as an equalizer and balance control. Videos stored in the device's memory or on a card play smoothly in RealPlayer; however, flash videos in YouTube tend to skip frequently.
Unfortunately, the E71 comes at a steep price, as it is not currently offered by any U.S. carriers. You'll have to drop around $500 for it, so it is important to evaluate exactly what you want out of it. But overall, the E71 shines as a stylish device that does more than the average business phone.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
HTC's 3G iPhone rival out in 30 countries already
by Dan Nystedt
High Tech Computer (HTC), the world's largest maker of smartphones that use Microsoft Windows Mobile, said Thursday its Touch Diamond handset has already been launched by 50 operators in 30 countries around the world.
The company also plans to introduce four or five more Diamond family products in the second half of this year.
The Touch Diamond, popular for its contoured shape, touchscreen and other iPhone-like features, is also a 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) handset and can store up to 4G bytes of music, photos or other data. It's a follow-up to the HTC Touch smartphone launched last year.
HTC says it has also been successful in working out deals to lower the initial cost of the handset for users. Apple's US$199 price tag on the 3G iPhone put pressure on HTC, which had originally planned to launch the device for NT$23,900 (US$783) in Taiwan.
Earlier this month HTC announced a deal to sell the Touch Diamond for NT$2,999 (US$98) with certain 3G contracts from Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest mobile phone service provider.
The company has already announced one of its new Diamond family products, the Touch Pro, a business handset with a similar design to the Touch Diamond.
Touch Pro shares the curved diamond backside of its sister handset, but it's thicker due to the Qwerty-keypad that slides out from underneath for easy thumb typing. Also like the Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro is a 3G smartphone with a 2.8-inch touchscreen, and runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS.
HTC said it expects its revenue in the third quarter to rise 30 percent year-over-year, a sign of confidence in sales of Diamond family handsets.
Also on Thursday, HTC reiterated its expectation to put out a handset based on Google's Android mobile phone software in the fourth quarter of this year.
High Tech Computer (HTC), the world's largest maker of smartphones that use Microsoft Windows Mobile, said Thursday its Touch Diamond handset has already been launched by 50 operators in 30 countries around the world.
The company also plans to introduce four or five more Diamond family products in the second half of this year.
The Touch Diamond, popular for its contoured shape, touchscreen and other iPhone-like features, is also a 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) handset and can store up to 4G bytes of music, photos or other data. It's a follow-up to the HTC Touch smartphone launched last year.
HTC says it has also been successful in working out deals to lower the initial cost of the handset for users. Apple's US$199 price tag on the 3G iPhone put pressure on HTC, which had originally planned to launch the device for NT$23,900 (US$783) in Taiwan.
Earlier this month HTC announced a deal to sell the Touch Diamond for NT$2,999 (US$98) with certain 3G contracts from Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest mobile phone service provider.
The company has already announced one of its new Diamond family products, the Touch Pro, a business handset with a similar design to the Touch Diamond.
Touch Pro shares the curved diamond backside of its sister handset, but it's thicker due to the Qwerty-keypad that slides out from underneath for easy thumb typing. Also like the Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro is a 3G smartphone with a 2.8-inch touchscreen, and runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS.
HTC said it expects its revenue in the third quarter to rise 30 percent year-over-year, a sign of confidence in sales of Diamond family handsets.
Also on Thursday, HTC reiterated its expectation to put out a handset based on Google's Android mobile phone software in the fourth quarter of this year.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Move over, Android: Here comes BlackBerry Bold
by JR Raphael
Research In Motion doesn't mind stealing Android's thunder. Details about the long-delayed BlackBerry Bold, RIM's new weapon in the 3G battle, were revealed Wednesday -- yep, right smack in the middle of Google's G1 release day glory.
RIM says its BlackBerry Bold phone will become available on AT&T starting November 4. Bold's pricetag isn't too timid, either: The phone will sell for a cool US$300, two-year contract included. Compare that to the $200 iPhone 3G and $180 T-Mobile G1, and you'll see where Bold earns its name.
Breaking Down Bold
So will Bold be worth the big stack of bills? Maybe. The device -- first flaunted back in May, before the iPhone 3G had even entered our vocabulary -- has seen delay after delay as RIM worked to perfect its network performance. RIM and AT&T are certainly hoping all the waiting will pay off. Here's what you can expect in the Bold:
-- An iPhone-esque look with a customizable leatherette backplate (add-on colored shells let you switch out the hue)
--A tweaked-up QWERTY keyboard with specially sculpted keys meant to avoid slipping and new thin metal dividers between each key
-- Support for 3G, HSDPA, and EDGE
-- Simultaneous voice and data capability
-- 802.11a/b/g WiFi
-- Stereo Bluetooth
-- Standard 3.5mm headphone jack (sorry, G1)
-- Full GPS capabilities
-- A 2-megapixel camera with 5X digital zoom
-- A 624 MHz mobile processor with 1GB on-board memory and 16GB additional memory capacity
Now, to be clear, Bold isn't BlackBerry's answer to the iPhone; that's the Storm, expected to hit stores by the holidays. Bold lacks the iPhone's touch technology, screen size, and accelerometer. Its AT&T Mobile Music Service is also no match for Apple's ubiquitous iTunes offering. But for business users seeking a full office suite and a non-virtual keyboard in a powerfully updated package, Bold might just be the right next step -- if, of course, the cost isn't too much of a burden.
Research In Motion doesn't mind stealing Android's thunder. Details about the long-delayed BlackBerry Bold, RIM's new weapon in the 3G battle, were revealed Wednesday -- yep, right smack in the middle of Google's G1 release day glory.
RIM says its BlackBerry Bold phone will become available on AT&T starting November 4. Bold's pricetag isn't too timid, either: The phone will sell for a cool US$300, two-year contract included. Compare that to the $200 iPhone 3G and $180 T-Mobile G1, and you'll see where Bold earns its name.
Breaking Down Bold
So will Bold be worth the big stack of bills? Maybe. The device -- first flaunted back in May, before the iPhone 3G had even entered our vocabulary -- has seen delay after delay as RIM worked to perfect its network performance. RIM and AT&T are certainly hoping all the waiting will pay off. Here's what you can expect in the Bold:
-- An iPhone-esque look with a customizable leatherette backplate (add-on colored shells let you switch out the hue)
--A tweaked-up QWERTY keyboard with specially sculpted keys meant to avoid slipping and new thin metal dividers between each key
-- Support for 3G, HSDPA, and EDGE
-- Simultaneous voice and data capability
-- 802.11a/b/g WiFi
-- Stereo Bluetooth
-- Standard 3.5mm headphone jack (sorry, G1)
-- Full GPS capabilities
-- A 2-megapixel camera with 5X digital zoom
-- A 624 MHz mobile processor with 1GB on-board memory and 16GB additional memory capacity
Now, to be clear, Bold isn't BlackBerry's answer to the iPhone; that's the Storm, expected to hit stores by the holidays. Bold lacks the iPhone's touch technology, screen size, and accelerometer. Its AT&T Mobile Music Service is also no match for Apple's ubiquitous iTunes offering. But for business users seeking a full office suite and a non-virtual keyboard in a powerfully updated package, Bold might just be the right next step -- if, of course, the cost isn't too much of a burden.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
BlackBerry Bold to hit stores Nov. 4
by Matt Hamblen
AT&T Inc. said Wednesday its BlackBerry Bold smart phone will go on sale Nov. 4 starting at US$299.99 with a two-year contract.
The device will operate on AT&T's HSDPA network in more than 300 U.S. cities and on similar networks in 60 countries, including Korea and Japan, the carrier said.
The Bold was first announced in May, when rumors first circulated about the BlackBerry Thunder, which Verizon Wireless will begin selling later in the year. The Bold had earlier been referred to as the BlackBerry 9000.
The Bold features a smaller screen than the Thunder, but it also has a QWERTY keyboard, instead of an on-screen keyboard. It boasts a powerful 624-MHz mobile processor, with 1GB of onboard storage, which can be upgraded to 16GB with an SD expansion slot. Built-in GPS and Wi-Fi are also provided.
AT&T said that the Bold can run cellular video and mobile music services, but also noted that it will work with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, allowing advanced IT administration and security. Verizon Wireless has touted both the consumer and business-user qualities of the BlackBerry Storm as well, noting that IT managers have come to rely on BlackBerry security more than other devices.
The announcement of Bold's availability came on the same day that T-Mobile USA Inc. put the G1 Android phone on sale, amid a season of smart-phone launches that included the July iPhone 3G launch by Apple Inc.
Motorola Inc. this week also said it is building its own Android phone, with a touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
AT&T Inc. said Wednesday its BlackBerry Bold smart phone will go on sale Nov. 4 starting at US$299.99 with a two-year contract.
The device will operate on AT&T's HSDPA network in more than 300 U.S. cities and on similar networks in 60 countries, including Korea and Japan, the carrier said.
The Bold was first announced in May, when rumors first circulated about the BlackBerry Thunder, which Verizon Wireless will begin selling later in the year. The Bold had earlier been referred to as the BlackBerry 9000.
The Bold features a smaller screen than the Thunder, but it also has a QWERTY keyboard, instead of an on-screen keyboard. It boasts a powerful 624-MHz mobile processor, with 1GB of onboard storage, which can be upgraded to 16GB with an SD expansion slot. Built-in GPS and Wi-Fi are also provided.
AT&T said that the Bold can run cellular video and mobile music services, but also noted that it will work with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, allowing advanced IT administration and security. Verizon Wireless has touted both the consumer and business-user qualities of the BlackBerry Storm as well, noting that IT managers have come to rely on BlackBerry security more than other devices.
The announcement of Bold's availability came on the same day that T-Mobile USA Inc. put the G1 Android phone on sale, amid a season of smart-phone launches that included the July iPhone 3G launch by Apple Inc.
Motorola Inc. this week also said it is building its own Android phone, with a touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Aimersoft Video Converter
Aimersoft Video Converter differs from other software. The most important thing about the software is that it is extremely easy in usage.
Aimersoft Video Converter is a comprehensive video conversion software that makes it easy to convert, join, and split video files among AVI , MPEG (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), MOV , WMV/ASF, VCD/DAT and SVCD formats.
It can also extract audio tracks and images from videos.
Aimersoft Video Converter helps you do iPod rip and convert all famous video and audio formats such as MPEG, AVI, MOV, RM, DivX, RMVB, VOB, MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, APE, WMV, CDA to iPod or iPhone movie
This software is a perfect solution for those who are always on the go and don’t want to waste their precious time!
Aimersoft Video Converter is a comprehensive video conversion software that makes it easy to convert, join, and split video files among AVI , MPEG (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), MOV , WMV/ASF, VCD/DAT and SVCD formats.
It can also extract audio tracks and images from videos.
Aimersoft Video Converter helps you do iPod rip and convert all famous video and audio formats such as MPEG, AVI, MOV, RM, DivX, RMVB, VOB, MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, APE, WMV, CDA to iPod or iPhone movie
This software is a perfect solution for those who are always on the go and don’t want to waste their precious time!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Boosted bandwidth in the offing for more smartphones
by Mikael Ricknäs
IDG News Service — A growing number of smartphones come equipped with support for both higher download and upload speeds.
The T-Mobile G1, Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 all come with support for HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) at 7.2M bps (bits per second), as well as HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) at 2M bps.
"By the end of this year a good proportion of mid- and high-tier products are certainly going to be 7.2M bps. At the moment there is a small percentage that are supporting HSUPA, largely given to the fact that there aren't that many operators who yet have activated HSUPA in their network," said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.
How aggressively the handset manufacturers are going to add support for HSUPA will be dictated by the operators. Chances are a good proportion of high-tier products, at least, will move to support it during next year, according to Blaber.
Users who just send e-mails with their BlackBerry devices won't see much of a difference. Streaming video and downloading content on the move are the kinds of applications that warrant higher speeds. Bloggers who want to upload pictures and files to Web pages will also be able to take advantage of the improvements in bandwidth, according to Blaber.
"We are at a time now when the applications and the requirements are there for that extra capacity. I would argue that when 3G first came out it was a technology without a clear requirement from the users," said Blaber.
Samsung, which has been an early adopter of mobile broadband, also sees blogging and social networking as applications that will benefit faster phones. "The more bandwidth you get, the more convenient it will be to use that in the mobile phone," said Erik Johannesson, Nordic PR manager at Samsung.
Samsung has announced the W600, which supports the next step, HSUPA at 5.76M bps, for the Korean market.
But not all manufacturers are onboard -- Apple and Nokia are still on the fence.
"We will have plenty of phones that support HSUPA," said Antti Vasara, senior vice president, productization devices, at Nokia R&D.
Phones that support HSDPA at 7.2M bps are also on the way, according to Vasara.
But he doesn't want to reveal any details. "It's always about getting the timing right. It's bad if you're too early, and it's of course bad if you're too late," said Vasara, who thinks that users will see the biggest difference when watching videos.
Apple doesn't want to talk about future plans, according to spokesman Alan Hely.
So far about 40 operators worldwide have HSUPA, HSDPA at 7.2M bps or both in service, compared to about 200 commercial HSPA networks, according to figures from the GSM Association.
As speeds and data usage continue to increase network divisions at operators will be kept busy. Because if users are to take advantage of the higher speeds the network, especially the data links to and from base stations, will have to keep up.
"That is certainly the biggest concern," said Blaber.
IDG News Service — A growing number of smartphones come equipped with support for both higher download and upload speeds.
The T-Mobile G1, Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 all come with support for HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) at 7.2M bps (bits per second), as well as HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) at 2M bps.
"By the end of this year a good proportion of mid- and high-tier products are certainly going to be 7.2M bps. At the moment there is a small percentage that are supporting HSUPA, largely given to the fact that there aren't that many operators who yet have activated HSUPA in their network," said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.
How aggressively the handset manufacturers are going to add support for HSUPA will be dictated by the operators. Chances are a good proportion of high-tier products, at least, will move to support it during next year, according to Blaber.
Users who just send e-mails with their BlackBerry devices won't see much of a difference. Streaming video and downloading content on the move are the kinds of applications that warrant higher speeds. Bloggers who want to upload pictures and files to Web pages will also be able to take advantage of the improvements in bandwidth, according to Blaber.
"We are at a time now when the applications and the requirements are there for that extra capacity. I would argue that when 3G first came out it was a technology without a clear requirement from the users," said Blaber.
Samsung, which has been an early adopter of mobile broadband, also sees blogging and social networking as applications that will benefit faster phones. "The more bandwidth you get, the more convenient it will be to use that in the mobile phone," said Erik Johannesson, Nordic PR manager at Samsung.
Samsung has announced the W600, which supports the next step, HSUPA at 5.76M bps, for the Korean market.
But not all manufacturers are onboard -- Apple and Nokia are still on the fence.
"We will have plenty of phones that support HSUPA," said Antti Vasara, senior vice president, productization devices, at Nokia R&D.
Phones that support HSDPA at 7.2M bps are also on the way, according to Vasara.
But he doesn't want to reveal any details. "It's always about getting the timing right. It's bad if you're too early, and it's of course bad if you're too late," said Vasara, who thinks that users will see the biggest difference when watching videos.
Apple doesn't want to talk about future plans, according to spokesman Alan Hely.
So far about 40 operators worldwide have HSUPA, HSDPA at 7.2M bps or both in service, compared to about 200 commercial HSPA networks, according to figures from the GSM Association.
As speeds and data usage continue to increase network divisions at operators will be kept busy. Because if users are to take advantage of the higher speeds the network, especially the data links to and from base stations, will have to keep up.
"That is certainly the biggest concern," said Blaber.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Is it time for Sony to drop the PS3's price?
by Matt Peckham
At up to US$470 fully loaded, Sony's PS3 doesn't come cheap, so I'm going to have to agree with EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinich when he suggests the PS3 is getting clobbered by Microsoft's recent Xbox 360 price cuts. The PS3 costs around $400 in its base configuration, ascending to upwards of $470 if you tack on an HDMI cable ($20) and Bluetooth headset ($50). The Xbox 360 tends to be slightly to significantly more expensive if you load up its three configurations with most of the PS3's bells and whistles, but its base pricing still seems lower when you scan sticker to sticker.
We tend to think in terms of those stickers, not "total cost of ownership," so cheaply priced, modular technology fares historically better than "one-size-fits-all," even if buying up all the individual widgets costs more in the long run. If the Xbox 360 Arcade is $200 and the PlayStation 3 is $400, those of us without a flag in either camp tend to see "fifty percent cheaper" and rationalize our expenditures in terms of money on the table, otherwise known as "How much do I minimally have to spend to play that?"
Factor in a tumbling investment market, sprawling consumer debt (and nonexistent consumer savings), general mortgage gridlock, and what's going to win hearts and wallets this holiday season probably has more to do with Bottom Line than luxury tech-bling, namely stuff like Blu-ray and 50-inch LCD TVs and digital-download-swollen hard drives. Or if you're thinking more along the lines of "save money, stay home," then you're probably looking to build out your home tech spread in small pieces, one trend at a time.
Don't tell that to Sony. The company's made it pretty clear it plans to hold the line on pricing through 2008. When German magazine DIE WELT asked Sony CEO Howard Stringer Stringer if Sony would reduce the price of the PlayStation 3 before Christmas, Stringer replied: "I think not."
EEDAR's Divinich predicts September's 360 sales will be up 31 percent weekly, in stark contrast to a 7 percent weekly decline for the PS3. He believes Sony needs to seriously rethink its position on a holiday price cut, especially if September's PS3 sales reveal a monthly total of under 200,000 units, which he says "could be an indication that the Xbox 360 price cut played a bigger role hindering PS3 sales than we originally expected." I agree, and without qualifications.
What's Sony thinking? It's essentially got two games -- Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet -- in its holiday quiver: The former's a sequel to 2006's bestselling first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man, while the latter's an unproven but hugely anticipated casual-angled action-platformer with social networking and customization tools hypothetically genre-bending enough to launch millions of consoles.
But what about Xbox 360 exclusives like Halo 3. I think it'll be even bigger, personally, and I say that as someone with mixed sentiments toward the original (which, incidentally, has nearly twice Resistance's total worldwide unit sales). While I'm personally most excited about LittleBigPlanet, put me in a room and apply thumbscrews and I'd have to admit Microsoft has the edge here by a pretty wide margin.
(For a closer look at the above four games and 11 more, check out our 15 Coolest Games of Fall 2008 feature.)
Sony's argument: Hardware costs are brutal, and the company can probably hold its own -- if it places last, it'll be a strong last. That's a reasonable position, and maybe the cost-per-part bleeding doesn't justify sell-through gains if the PS3 dropped to $300 or even $350, but three years into the PS2's life cycle it was positively soaring, with sales of over 50 million units worldwide.
By comparison, the PS3 has only sold around 15.7 million units globally since it launched in November 2006. That's a 34 million deficit to shore up over the next 12 months, just to achieve intergenerational parity. Factor in the loss of exclusives like Devil May Cry 4 and Final Fantasy XIII (and who knows what else to come) and Sony's rolling a price-point boulder uphill, both ways.
At up to US$470 fully loaded, Sony's PS3 doesn't come cheap, so I'm going to have to agree with EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinich when he suggests the PS3 is getting clobbered by Microsoft's recent Xbox 360 price cuts. The PS3 costs around $400 in its base configuration, ascending to upwards of $470 if you tack on an HDMI cable ($20) and Bluetooth headset ($50). The Xbox 360 tends to be slightly to significantly more expensive if you load up its three configurations with most of the PS3's bells and whistles, but its base pricing still seems lower when you scan sticker to sticker.
We tend to think in terms of those stickers, not "total cost of ownership," so cheaply priced, modular technology fares historically better than "one-size-fits-all," even if buying up all the individual widgets costs more in the long run. If the Xbox 360 Arcade is $200 and the PlayStation 3 is $400, those of us without a flag in either camp tend to see "fifty percent cheaper" and rationalize our expenditures in terms of money on the table, otherwise known as "How much do I minimally have to spend to play that?"
Factor in a tumbling investment market, sprawling consumer debt (and nonexistent consumer savings), general mortgage gridlock, and what's going to win hearts and wallets this holiday season probably has more to do with Bottom Line than luxury tech-bling, namely stuff like Blu-ray and 50-inch LCD TVs and digital-download-swollen hard drives. Or if you're thinking more along the lines of "save money, stay home," then you're probably looking to build out your home tech spread in small pieces, one trend at a time.
Don't tell that to Sony. The company's made it pretty clear it plans to hold the line on pricing through 2008. When German magazine DIE WELT asked Sony CEO Howard Stringer Stringer if Sony would reduce the price of the PlayStation 3 before Christmas, Stringer replied: "I think not."
EEDAR's Divinich predicts September's 360 sales will be up 31 percent weekly, in stark contrast to a 7 percent weekly decline for the PS3. He believes Sony needs to seriously rethink its position on a holiday price cut, especially if September's PS3 sales reveal a monthly total of under 200,000 units, which he says "could be an indication that the Xbox 360 price cut played a bigger role hindering PS3 sales than we originally expected." I agree, and without qualifications.
What's Sony thinking? It's essentially got two games -- Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet -- in its holiday quiver: The former's a sequel to 2006's bestselling first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man, while the latter's an unproven but hugely anticipated casual-angled action-platformer with social networking and customization tools hypothetically genre-bending enough to launch millions of consoles.
But what about Xbox 360 exclusives like Halo 3. I think it'll be even bigger, personally, and I say that as someone with mixed sentiments toward the original (which, incidentally, has nearly twice Resistance's total worldwide unit sales). While I'm personally most excited about LittleBigPlanet, put me in a room and apply thumbscrews and I'd have to admit Microsoft has the edge here by a pretty wide margin.
(For a closer look at the above four games and 11 more, check out our 15 Coolest Games of Fall 2008 feature.)
Sony's argument: Hardware costs are brutal, and the company can probably hold its own -- if it places last, it'll be a strong last. That's a reasonable position, and maybe the cost-per-part bleeding doesn't justify sell-through gains if the PS3 dropped to $300 or even $350, but three years into the PS2's life cycle it was positively soaring, with sales of over 50 million units worldwide.
By comparison, the PS3 has only sold around 15.7 million units globally since it launched in November 2006. That's a 34 million deficit to shore up over the next 12 months, just to achieve intergenerational parity. Factor in the loss of exclusives like Devil May Cry 4 and Final Fantasy XIII (and who knows what else to come) and Sony's rolling a price-point boulder uphill, both ways.
Monday, October 13, 2008
iPhone apps for IT pros
by Josh Fruhlinger
Few gadgets have captured the imagination of both geeks and ordinary folk alike as Apple's iPhone has. Despite the significant segments of both populations who greeted the iPhone with a resounding "meh", millions have shelled out for the handheld super-smartphone. And if you're an IT pro, you may be staring at your shiny black plastic-and-metal $200 up-front expenditure and thinking, "Now what?"
Fortunately, the answer to this question is not the shoulder-shrugging and closet-consigning that might have met previous fads like the Pet Rock. The reason -- well, one of the reasons, anyway -- that IT pros would be partial to the iPhone in the first place is that it's a real Unix-based computer under the hood. The long history of iPhone jailbreaking goes to show how eager people are to get at that functionality, even risking warranty voiding and phone-bricking. But the advent of the iPhone App Store has now given geeks a more licit means to turn their phone into not just a geeky toy but an IT tool -- and one that your IT managers might not ban from the premises (and might even pay for!)
So, while the masses enjoy finding restaurants and playing off-brand versions of classic board games, IT geeks will want a something a little meatier, and a little more job-related, to fill their iPhone-ing time. This article will cover some of the apps that can improve your professional and hobbyist IT life. They're all available from the App Store -- no tales of jailbreaking woe or triumph here!
Going old school with the command line
If there is one traditional first reaction of a geek to a new computing device of some sort, it's "Can I get a command line on it?" True command-line hacking on the iPhone itself might not be available, but there are a number of terminal emulators out there that bring the experience of clicking keys on a black-and-green-screened VT100 to the palm of your hand.
But a terminal emulator does more than just offer nostalgia; it also provides a handy way to control remote machines from afar -- in this case, anywhere you have cell phone connectivity. Admittedly, for the IT pro a tool that makes it possible for you to be Mr. or Ms. Fix-It while watching TV or relaxing on the beach could be a mixed bag -- but perhaps five minutes of interrupted vacation time is a good use of time if it can avert a larger disaster down the road? Better still is the chance to subtly monitor or update your servers under the conference table while the sales VP is droning on about something or other in the weekly staff meeting, yet again.
There are actually three capable and well-regarded terminal emulators available for the iPhone: TouchTerm, pTerm, and iSSH, all for less than $5. All have roughly equal feature sets and various pros and cons, summed up nicely here.
I want my VNC!
Of course, a lot of the computers you'll want to monitor have needs beyond the command-line. A common tool in the help-desk's arsenal is VNC, which allows remote control of a variety of Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X desktops. With a VNC server on your computer and a client on your iPhone, you can use your phone as a remote control or remote trouble-shooting tool.
There are two VNC apps out there: Jaadu and Mocha VNC. Jaadu is from the same developers that brought out the beloved Touchpad Pro (a jailbreak-only app). Both are unfortunately lacking SSH encryption, so you can use them at your own risk; but for everything from mailing a document you accidentally left on your home computer to yourself to using your iPhone as a remote control for PowerPoint, these apps can help you out.
Targeted tools
If you're a sysadmin, you might need some specific information from your servers in an easy-to-digest form, or simple commands that don't require the overhead of a full-on terminal connection. Network Utility provides a great way to ping a server, scan its ports, get IP address and WhoIs information, and even see its physical location on Google Maps. Web Tools offers similar functionality, but doesn't have its own Web site -- search in the iTunes Store to find it.
How about one very specific -- but very useful -- bit of functionality, waking up a sleeping computer? There are a couple of iPhone apps that implement wake-over-LAN, Sleepover and iWOL. Both are an excellent complement to VNC, as you can now gain access to even computers that are dozing fitfully.
Yes, you can even edit text
You're probably never really going to use your iPhone to, say, tap out a 1,200-world article about iPhone apps for IT professionals. (I'd like to claim that I did just that while riding the bus or something, but truth be told my budget won't allow for my very own iPhone just yet.) Still, there may well be times when you want to make a tweak or two to anything from a memo to an HTML document -- and why should you have to pry your hands off your phone to do it?
One of the very few apps I've seen on the App Store with reviews almost all four stars or better is TextGuru. TextGuru is a fairly versatile text editor with a host of features that you would hope to see in a full-featured desktop editor, including (sakes alive!) the cut and paste functionality missing from the iPhone OS itself. There's also FTP On The Go, which, as the name suggest, primarily presents itself as an FTP client, but also has a built-in editor for those documents you access over FTP. (Unfortunately, SFTP isn't supported at the moment.) One of the problems with document editing on the iPhone is that the gadget takes an odd approach to file saving -- rather than a single filesystem, each app has its own little sandbox to save things in. These editors both work around this limitation in kind of kludgey ways, but that's necessary, given the limitations.
Most techies probably aren't as worked up as most about the lack of Microsoft Office support -- right now, you can look but not touch -- but surely the ability to edit a PowerPoint presentation will come in handy, when it gets here. A couple of different companies are working on Office-compatible editors, including DataViz, whose DocumentsToGo provides the same functionality a number of other platforms. (If you're interested, sign up on their slightly ominous notification page.
Just tell me what to do
Finally, with all the apps listed here, you might actually be getting too much information about your systems, which can really overwhelm a poor techie's decision-making processes. What if you just need a simple answer, and you need it now? Well, you can always consult the Magic 8 Ball, now in convenient iPhone form. Is it more convenient than lugging a physical plastic 8-ball around with you everywhere? All signs point to yes!
More apps a comin'!
The iPhone App Store is still in its infancy, more or less. There will be more apps, and improvements on the ones listed in this article, in days to come. And there might be some that I missed here! If you're in love with your iPhone as an IT tool -- or are miffed at what it can't do -- feel free to chime in in the comments.
Few gadgets have captured the imagination of both geeks and ordinary folk alike as Apple's iPhone has. Despite the significant segments of both populations who greeted the iPhone with a resounding "meh", millions have shelled out for the handheld super-smartphone. And if you're an IT pro, you may be staring at your shiny black plastic-and-metal $200 up-front expenditure and thinking, "Now what?"
Fortunately, the answer to this question is not the shoulder-shrugging and closet-consigning that might have met previous fads like the Pet Rock. The reason -- well, one of the reasons, anyway -- that IT pros would be partial to the iPhone in the first place is that it's a real Unix-based computer under the hood. The long history of iPhone jailbreaking goes to show how eager people are to get at that functionality, even risking warranty voiding and phone-bricking. But the advent of the iPhone App Store has now given geeks a more licit means to turn their phone into not just a geeky toy but an IT tool -- and one that your IT managers might not ban from the premises (and might even pay for!)
So, while the masses enjoy finding restaurants and playing off-brand versions of classic board games, IT geeks will want a something a little meatier, and a little more job-related, to fill their iPhone-ing time. This article will cover some of the apps that can improve your professional and hobbyist IT life. They're all available from the App Store -- no tales of jailbreaking woe or triumph here!
Going old school with the command line
If there is one traditional first reaction of a geek to a new computing device of some sort, it's "Can I get a command line on it?" True command-line hacking on the iPhone itself might not be available, but there are a number of terminal emulators out there that bring the experience of clicking keys on a black-and-green-screened VT100 to the palm of your hand.
But a terminal emulator does more than just offer nostalgia; it also provides a handy way to control remote machines from afar -- in this case, anywhere you have cell phone connectivity. Admittedly, for the IT pro a tool that makes it possible for you to be Mr. or Ms. Fix-It while watching TV or relaxing on the beach could be a mixed bag -- but perhaps five minutes of interrupted vacation time is a good use of time if it can avert a larger disaster down the road? Better still is the chance to subtly monitor or update your servers under the conference table while the sales VP is droning on about something or other in the weekly staff meeting, yet again.
There are actually three capable and well-regarded terminal emulators available for the iPhone: TouchTerm, pTerm, and iSSH, all for less than $5. All have roughly equal feature sets and various pros and cons, summed up nicely here.
I want my VNC!
Of course, a lot of the computers you'll want to monitor have needs beyond the command-line. A common tool in the help-desk's arsenal is VNC, which allows remote control of a variety of Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X desktops. With a VNC server on your computer and a client on your iPhone, you can use your phone as a remote control or remote trouble-shooting tool.
There are two VNC apps out there: Jaadu and Mocha VNC. Jaadu is from the same developers that brought out the beloved Touchpad Pro (a jailbreak-only app). Both are unfortunately lacking SSH encryption, so you can use them at your own risk; but for everything from mailing a document you accidentally left on your home computer to yourself to using your iPhone as a remote control for PowerPoint, these apps can help you out.
Targeted tools
If you're a sysadmin, you might need some specific information from your servers in an easy-to-digest form, or simple commands that don't require the overhead of a full-on terminal connection. Network Utility provides a great way to ping a server, scan its ports, get IP address and WhoIs information, and even see its physical location on Google Maps. Web Tools offers similar functionality, but doesn't have its own Web site -- search in the iTunes Store to find it.
How about one very specific -- but very useful -- bit of functionality, waking up a sleeping computer? There are a couple of iPhone apps that implement wake-over-LAN, Sleepover and iWOL. Both are an excellent complement to VNC, as you can now gain access to even computers that are dozing fitfully.
Yes, you can even edit text
You're probably never really going to use your iPhone to, say, tap out a 1,200-world article about iPhone apps for IT professionals. (I'd like to claim that I did just that while riding the bus or something, but truth be told my budget won't allow for my very own iPhone just yet.) Still, there may well be times when you want to make a tweak or two to anything from a memo to an HTML document -- and why should you have to pry your hands off your phone to do it?
One of the very few apps I've seen on the App Store with reviews almost all four stars or better is TextGuru. TextGuru is a fairly versatile text editor with a host of features that you would hope to see in a full-featured desktop editor, including (sakes alive!) the cut and paste functionality missing from the iPhone OS itself. There's also FTP On The Go, which, as the name suggest, primarily presents itself as an FTP client, but also has a built-in editor for those documents you access over FTP. (Unfortunately, SFTP isn't supported at the moment.) One of the problems with document editing on the iPhone is that the gadget takes an odd approach to file saving -- rather than a single filesystem, each app has its own little sandbox to save things in. These editors both work around this limitation in kind of kludgey ways, but that's necessary, given the limitations.
Most techies probably aren't as worked up as most about the lack of Microsoft Office support -- right now, you can look but not touch -- but surely the ability to edit a PowerPoint presentation will come in handy, when it gets here. A couple of different companies are working on Office-compatible editors, including DataViz, whose DocumentsToGo provides the same functionality a number of other platforms. (If you're interested, sign up on their slightly ominous notification page.
Just tell me what to do
Finally, with all the apps listed here, you might actually be getting too much information about your systems, which can really overwhelm a poor techie's decision-making processes. What if you just need a simple answer, and you need it now? Well, you can always consult the Magic 8 Ball, now in convenient iPhone form. Is it more convenient than lugging a physical plastic 8-ball around with you everywhere? All signs point to yes!
More apps a comin'!
The iPhone App Store is still in its infancy, more or less. There will be more apps, and improvements on the ones listed in this article, in days to come. And there might be some that I missed here! If you're in love with your iPhone as an IT tool -- or are miffed at what it can't do -- feel free to chime in in the comments.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Gas station finders for the iPhone
by Rob Griffiths
Macworld.com — Given the iPhone's ability to locate itself (precisely, for an iPhone 3G, and roughly, for a first-generation iPhone or iPod touch), it's not surprising that a number of location-aware programs have sprung up in the App Store--you can find programs that will track your iPhone via its GPS chip, show you where your friends are, and tell you which businesses and places of interest are in your immediate neighborhood, such as Yelp.
Another task that seems to fit well with a location-aware iPhone is finding the nearest--and least-expensive--fuel for your vehicle. In this era of US$4.00-per-gallon gas--yes, non-U.S. readers, we know we have it comparatively easy--saving as much money as possible on a fill-up is a good thing. But can the iPhone really help you save both time and money by finding the least-costly nearby gas station?
To answer this question, I installed three gas-station-locating applications on my iPhone 3G--the free GasBag, the $3 iGas, and the free MyGasWars--and put them to the test. (Note that some of the multi-service location-aware applications also include gas finders; I'll cover them briefly in the Other Options section.
In evaluating these programs, I tested them from my home (wireless network), from a location in the downtown area of our mid-size suburb (3G network), and out in the country (EDGE network). I was curious as to how many stations would be found in each location, how accurate the provided pricing info would be, and how easy it was to get driving directions from your current location to a chosen gas station.
The country location in particular was chosen to see how well the programs worked away from a population center--it's usually pretty easy to find a gas station in the city. The spot I picked was actually in the parking lot of the only gas station within about a five-mile radius of that spot, and it's not a chain gas station, making it less likely that it might reside in a database somewhere. I was curious to see which of the programs would know about this out-of-the-way station.
All of these programs will be most accurate with an iPhone 3G, as it provides your specific location to the program (assuming you have Location Services enabled in Settings). If you've got a first generation iPhone or iPod touch, you're not out of luck, however--you can input a zip code or city to help pinpoint your location. (Because I only have an iPhone 3G available for testing, I was unable to confirm how well this feature works on other devices.)
So how well do these programs work, based on my testing? Well enough to find a nearby gas station, certainly, but no program I tested found all the stations in any given area. I also experienced crashes, poor performance, and obvious missing features in a couple of the programs. The good news is that only iGas
costs money, so it won't cost you anything to test the other two in your own area.
My Gas Wars uses a database of user-contributed station and pricing information to show stations in your area. Unfortunately, this program's limitations far outweigh its features. It takes a very long time to load--30 seconds or more on a 3G network, and longer on EDGE--and it missed not only my rural station, but a number of stations around our home. The map display is an odd mix--it's a map on the top, with an attached text display at the bottom, and depending on where you drag your finger, you either scroll the whole page or just the map view.
Instead of showing the actual station on the map, My Gas Wars assigns a letter to each match, and shows the price per gallon next to the letter. You then scroll down to the text area to see the station's name, pricing information, and address--but you can't get driving directions to those locations, nor are the distances to the stations displayed anywhere. My results also included convenience markets, such as 7-11, which don't offer fuel in Oregon. Even for those stations that My Gas Wars found, pricing information was lacking--of the 10 results listed near our home, six were 7-11s, and one of the four gas stations had no pricing information. Due to the below-average performance and missing features, I wouldn't recommend My Gas Wars at this time.
iGas, the only program with a price tag, is also the only program that doesn't use a user-generated database for station information. Instead, iGas uses data from Oil Price Information Network, which should give it an edge--in theory. Unfortunately, missing features and usability issues make iGas hard to use and difficult to recommend. While the program did display pricing information for all 10 stations in its results list (along with the date and time those prices were last updated), the distance to each station is not displayed. The list is sorted from lowest to highest cost (and the order can't be changed), so the first entry on the list may be the farthest from your current location--not what you want if you need gas now.
A Map button lets you see all 10 matches on a map, but your current position isn't displayed on the map--making it really hard to figure out where you are relative to the 10 matches. You can click on one of the markers to see the station's name, address, and price information--but there's no way to get driving directions to that station on the map view. Instead, you need to return to list view, click on a station's name, and then tap the address to get the driving directions. I found that the map view was very jerky when scrolling, and took a while to load, even on a 3G connection.
In addition to these issues, iGas crashed on me a number of times, usually when I was trying to open or navigate around the map view. One final issue is that iGas isn't actually sold--it's licensed on an annual basis. One year after purchase, the program will stop retrieving data until you buy a "renewal application." Given that iGas uses a commercial pricing database, I understand the need to cover the annual license fees, but with two free competitors in the niche, this may be a tough sell.
GasBag, like My Gas Wars, uses a user-built database of stations and pricing information. Of the three programs, GasBag has the best user interface, and performed quite well in my testing. To help grow the database as quickly as possible, the developers have made adding stations and pricing information about as easy as it can be. You can update prices for any existing station with only a few taps, and adding a new station isn't much harder than that. As an example, GasBag didn't find the station in my rural test, so I added it (and its pricing information) to the database. Less than 10 hours later--I'm not sure exactly when, as I added the station just before turning in for the night--the station and its prices appeared in GasBag. During my other tests, GasBag found all the stations around my home, and most of the downtown stations.
When you launch GasBag, the program asks for permission to use your current location, and then displays a map showing that location, and icons for nearby gas stations, as seen in the image at right. On each icon is both the company logo (Shell, 76, etc.) and the price (if someone has submitted pricing info) for your preferred grade of fuel--there are the most prices available for regular unleaded, so that's what I left my preferences set to display.
You can also use the magnifying glass icon to search any area of the country by town name or zip code, so you can quickly see what sort of coverage your area has--or the coverage for an area you'll soon be visiting. I ran a few trials with major cities such as Sacramento, Denver, and Chicago, and there seemed to be good coverage there as well. Smaller towns may not be so well represented, however.
The map works (more or less) just like the Maps application on the iPhone. You can pinch and zoom to change the magnification level, and scroll the view around with a finger drag. Loading the map can be a bit slow, especially on the EDGE network. Once loaded, moving and zooming is relatively smooth, though not as smooth as the Maps application. The icons on the map can be somewhat slow to show up--I would guess because the program needs to pull the information for the badge from the server. Another odd quirk is that, even after you've seen a station's icon once, if you then scroll the map and scroll back, that icon may have vanished,
and will take a bit of time to reappear. Tapping a station's icon gets you a screen where you can switch to the Maps application to get driving directions, and see and/or update that station's pricing information.
There's a bonus feature in GasBag as well--a built-in mileage tracking application. Just tap the Buy Gas Here button on the Station Details screen, and enter the details of your purchase. The program will then track your mileage and spending over time.
What are the downsides of GasBag? The biggest drawback is that it is a community-built database, so depending on where you live, the results may not be overly useful. It's also fairly new, so the database is small but growing rapidly as more people start using the program. Initial reviews on the App Store, for instance, noted that there were no matches in Sacramento. When I checked Sacramento just before completing this review, there were at least two dozen stations listed. Coverage in the Portland area seemed pretty good, as it found all of the stations near my home, and most of them in the downtown area.
GasBag's speed is fairly good on 3G, and somewhat on the slow side over EDGE--the map can take a while to appear, and a while to update as you scroll about. To be fair, though, none of these programs were all that fast when on EDGE--there's a fair amount of data coming down to the iPhone, and that takes some time to collect it all.
Other OptionsThere are at least four free multiple-services location apps that offer gas finding features--the previously-mentioned Yelp, AroundMe, iWant, and Where.Of these programs, I felt Where offered the best gas station finder, when considering features and performance. Where found my rural station (AroundMe was the only other program that did so), but fell short when finding all the stations near my home and around downtown. You can view the results in both list and map views, with the list view being the most useful to me--it displays the stations, the distance to each one, and the price for a chosen grade of fuel. I found the map to be somewhat slow when scrolling, and it loads slowly, even on a fast 3G connection.
Where uses data from GasBuddy, which is a user-created database of gas stations and pricing. I compared the prices in Where with those on the GasBuddy website, and found a few instances where the pricing was newer on GasBuddy, so I'm not sure how often Where's data is updated. Unfortunately, you can't upload new stations or gas pricing information to GasBuddy directly from Where; you have to switch to Mobile Safari and do that directly on the GasBuddy web site.
Despite the limitations, Where offers a decent gas station finder as part of its suite of services; if you're more interested in a many-trick pony than a one-trick pony, it's worth checking out. But if you do want a one-trick pony, as of right now, GasBag offers the best mix of features, stability, and performance.
Macworld.com — Given the iPhone's ability to locate itself (precisely, for an iPhone 3G, and roughly, for a first-generation iPhone or iPod touch), it's not surprising that a number of location-aware programs have sprung up in the App Store--you can find programs that will track your iPhone via its GPS chip, show you where your friends are, and tell you which businesses and places of interest are in your immediate neighborhood, such as Yelp.
Another task that seems to fit well with a location-aware iPhone is finding the nearest--and least-expensive--fuel for your vehicle. In this era of US$4.00-per-gallon gas--yes, non-U.S. readers, we know we have it comparatively easy--saving as much money as possible on a fill-up is a good thing. But can the iPhone really help you save both time and money by finding the least-costly nearby gas station?
To answer this question, I installed three gas-station-locating applications on my iPhone 3G--the free GasBag, the $3 iGas, and the free MyGasWars--and put them to the test. (Note that some of the multi-service location-aware applications also include gas finders; I'll cover them briefly in the Other Options section.
In evaluating these programs, I tested them from my home (wireless network), from a location in the downtown area of our mid-size suburb (3G network), and out in the country (EDGE network). I was curious as to how many stations would be found in each location, how accurate the provided pricing info would be, and how easy it was to get driving directions from your current location to a chosen gas station.
The country location in particular was chosen to see how well the programs worked away from a population center--it's usually pretty easy to find a gas station in the city. The spot I picked was actually in the parking lot of the only gas station within about a five-mile radius of that spot, and it's not a chain gas station, making it less likely that it might reside in a database somewhere. I was curious to see which of the programs would know about this out-of-the-way station.
All of these programs will be most accurate with an iPhone 3G, as it provides your specific location to the program (assuming you have Location Services enabled in Settings). If you've got a first generation iPhone or iPod touch, you're not out of luck, however--you can input a zip code or city to help pinpoint your location. (Because I only have an iPhone 3G available for testing, I was unable to confirm how well this feature works on other devices.)
So how well do these programs work, based on my testing? Well enough to find a nearby gas station, certainly, but no program I tested found all the stations in any given area. I also experienced crashes, poor performance, and obvious missing features in a couple of the programs. The good news is that only iGas
costs money, so it won't cost you anything to test the other two in your own area.
My Gas Wars uses a database of user-contributed station and pricing information to show stations in your area. Unfortunately, this program's limitations far outweigh its features. It takes a very long time to load--30 seconds or more on a 3G network, and longer on EDGE--and it missed not only my rural station, but a number of stations around our home. The map display is an odd mix--it's a map on the top, with an attached text display at the bottom, and depending on where you drag your finger, you either scroll the whole page or just the map view.
Instead of showing the actual station on the map, My Gas Wars assigns a letter to each match, and shows the price per gallon next to the letter. You then scroll down to the text area to see the station's name, pricing information, and address--but you can't get driving directions to those locations, nor are the distances to the stations displayed anywhere. My results also included convenience markets, such as 7-11, which don't offer fuel in Oregon. Even for those stations that My Gas Wars found, pricing information was lacking--of the 10 results listed near our home, six were 7-11s, and one of the four gas stations had no pricing information. Due to the below-average performance and missing features, I wouldn't recommend My Gas Wars at this time.
iGas, the only program with a price tag, is also the only program that doesn't use a user-generated database for station information. Instead, iGas uses data from Oil Price Information Network, which should give it an edge--in theory. Unfortunately, missing features and usability issues make iGas hard to use and difficult to recommend. While the program did display pricing information for all 10 stations in its results list (along with the date and time those prices were last updated), the distance to each station is not displayed. The list is sorted from lowest to highest cost (and the order can't be changed), so the first entry on the list may be the farthest from your current location--not what you want if you need gas now.
A Map button lets you see all 10 matches on a map, but your current position isn't displayed on the map--making it really hard to figure out where you are relative to the 10 matches. You can click on one of the markers to see the station's name, address, and price information--but there's no way to get driving directions to that station on the map view. Instead, you need to return to list view, click on a station's name, and then tap the address to get the driving directions. I found that the map view was very jerky when scrolling, and took a while to load, even on a 3G connection.
In addition to these issues, iGas crashed on me a number of times, usually when I was trying to open or navigate around the map view. One final issue is that iGas isn't actually sold--it's licensed on an annual basis. One year after purchase, the program will stop retrieving data until you buy a "renewal application." Given that iGas uses a commercial pricing database, I understand the need to cover the annual license fees, but with two free competitors in the niche, this may be a tough sell.
GasBag, like My Gas Wars, uses a user-built database of stations and pricing information. Of the three programs, GasBag has the best user interface, and performed quite well in my testing. To help grow the database as quickly as possible, the developers have made adding stations and pricing information about as easy as it can be. You can update prices for any existing station with only a few taps, and adding a new station isn't much harder than that. As an example, GasBag didn't find the station in my rural test, so I added it (and its pricing information) to the database. Less than 10 hours later--I'm not sure exactly when, as I added the station just before turning in for the night--the station and its prices appeared in GasBag. During my other tests, GasBag found all the stations around my home, and most of the downtown stations.
When you launch GasBag, the program asks for permission to use your current location, and then displays a map showing that location, and icons for nearby gas stations, as seen in the image at right. On each icon is both the company logo (Shell, 76, etc.) and the price (if someone has submitted pricing info) for your preferred grade of fuel--there are the most prices available for regular unleaded, so that's what I left my preferences set to display.
You can also use the magnifying glass icon to search any area of the country by town name or zip code, so you can quickly see what sort of coverage your area has--or the coverage for an area you'll soon be visiting. I ran a few trials with major cities such as Sacramento, Denver, and Chicago, and there seemed to be good coverage there as well. Smaller towns may not be so well represented, however.
The map works (more or less) just like the Maps application on the iPhone. You can pinch and zoom to change the magnification level, and scroll the view around with a finger drag. Loading the map can be a bit slow, especially on the EDGE network. Once loaded, moving and zooming is relatively smooth, though not as smooth as the Maps application. The icons on the map can be somewhat slow to show up--I would guess because the program needs to pull the information for the badge from the server. Another odd quirk is that, even after you've seen a station's icon once, if you then scroll the map and scroll back, that icon may have vanished,
and will take a bit of time to reappear. Tapping a station's icon gets you a screen where you can switch to the Maps application to get driving directions, and see and/or update that station's pricing information.
There's a bonus feature in GasBag as well--a built-in mileage tracking application. Just tap the Buy Gas Here button on the Station Details screen, and enter the details of your purchase. The program will then track your mileage and spending over time.
What are the downsides of GasBag? The biggest drawback is that it is a community-built database, so depending on where you live, the results may not be overly useful. It's also fairly new, so the database is small but growing rapidly as more people start using the program. Initial reviews on the App Store, for instance, noted that there were no matches in Sacramento. When I checked Sacramento just before completing this review, there were at least two dozen stations listed. Coverage in the Portland area seemed pretty good, as it found all of the stations near my home, and most of them in the downtown area.
GasBag's speed is fairly good on 3G, and somewhat on the slow side over EDGE--the map can take a while to appear, and a while to update as you scroll about. To be fair, though, none of these programs were all that fast when on EDGE--there's a fair amount of data coming down to the iPhone, and that takes some time to collect it all.
Other OptionsThere are at least four free multiple-services location apps that offer gas finding features--the previously-mentioned Yelp, AroundMe, iWant, and Where.Of these programs, I felt Where offered the best gas station finder, when considering features and performance. Where found my rural station (AroundMe was the only other program that did so), but fell short when finding all the stations near my home and around downtown. You can view the results in both list and map views, with the list view being the most useful to me--it displays the stations, the distance to each one, and the price for a chosen grade of fuel. I found the map to be somewhat slow when scrolling, and it loads slowly, even on a fast 3G connection.
Where uses data from GasBuddy, which is a user-created database of gas stations and pricing. I compared the prices in Where with those on the GasBuddy website, and found a few instances where the pricing was newer on GasBuddy, so I'm not sure how often Where's data is updated. Unfortunately, you can't upload new stations or gas pricing information to GasBuddy directly from Where; you have to switch to Mobile Safari and do that directly on the GasBuddy web site.
Despite the limitations, Where offers a decent gas station finder as part of its suite of services; if you're more interested in a many-trick pony than a one-trick pony, it's worth checking out. But if you do want a one-trick pony, as of right now, GasBag offers the best mix of features, stability, and performance.
Smartphone showdown BlackBerry Storm vs iPhone
by Brad Reed---------------------------------------------
October 9, 2008, 09:49 PM — Network World —
Not content to stand by while AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint generate all the wireless hype, Verizon last week announced that it would be supporting Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm smartphone on its network come November.
RIM's first touchscreen device features a "clickable" screen that the company says simulates the feel of a physical keyboard. The Storm can connect to either EV-DO Rev. A or HSPA 3G cellular networks and features 1GB of onboard memory storage and a card slot that allows for up to 16GB of additional storage.
But while Verizon (and Vodafone in Europe and elsewhere) is hoping that the BlackBerry Storm will be its own "iPhone killer," questions remain about whether the offering can match the popular Apple consumer device in several key areas. Here's a look at how the Storm stacks up against the iPhone in terms of call quality, data coverage, price and more. (View as a slideshow comparing the iPhone to the Storm.)
Call qualityYear after year, survey after survey, Verizon consistently gets the highest marks for wireless call quality, for the least amount of dropped calls and for overall network reliability. Verizon also outpaces AT&T in terms of customer service and in the cost of service, the latest JD Power survey finds. The bottom line: If call quality is your most important qualification, go Verizon.
3G network coverageVerizon and AT&T boast impressive 3G networks that span across the United States. Verizon's 3G network runs on the CDMA-based EV-DO Revision A wireless technology, while AT&T uses the GSM-based HSPA. A study conducted earlier this year by ComputerWorld showed that while AT&T and Verizon offered similar data speeds for their 3G networks, AT&T offered slightly faster service for peak download speeds, average download speeds and average upload speeds. Added to this, the iPhone is able to take advantage of local Wi-Fi hot spots to download data, while the Storm is not. Thus, the ability to access Wi-Fi as a cheaper alternative to 3G data service gives the iPhone a slight edge in this category.
CostOne of the most striking features of several new smartphones is their low cost. Apple and AT&T got the ball rolling earlier this year after they announced they were going to slash the price of the iPhone 3G to US$199. T-Mobile and Google decided to one-up them by selling their G1 smartphone for $179. So far, neither Verizon nor RIM have released details on the retail cost for the Storm, but it will likely have to be in the $200 range if it really aims to be the "iPhone killer" that its makers hope it will be.
Enterprise featuresThe iPhone is seen as a legitimate enterprise device now that it has access to Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync, a licensed data-synchronization protocol whose built-in support will give IT departments the ability to set password policies, set up VPN settings and perform remote data wipes on iPhones that have been lost or stolen. The iPhone also took a big step forward when it gained access to Cisco IPsec VPN, which Apple says will "ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data." However, as some analysts have pointed out, the BlackBerry still sets the standard for enterprise wireless devices due to its larger array of security policies, including the ability for IT departments to disable its digital cameras; to enable or shut down specific Bluetooth profiles and set how long the device is "discoverable" using Bluetooth; and to define which applications on a BlackBerry can access GPS capabilities.
KeypadsThis could be an intriguing matchup, since neither the iPhone nor the Storm has a physical slide-out keyboard like the T-Mobile G1 does. However, RIM says that it is changing the game of how touchscreen keypads work with what it calls a "clickable screen." This means that users can actually press down on the digital keys on the screen and feel them being pressed and released just like they'd feel a mouse button being pressed and released. Thus, users will in theory be able to type much easier by having the touch of a standard qwerty keyboard on the digital screen of their smartphone. Though we won't know for certain until it's tested out by more users, the Storm's keyboard gets the edge here for its ambition and creativity.
October 9, 2008, 09:49 PM — Network World —
Not content to stand by while AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint generate all the wireless hype, Verizon last week announced that it would be supporting Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm smartphone on its network come November.
RIM's first touchscreen device features a "clickable" screen that the company says simulates the feel of a physical keyboard. The Storm can connect to either EV-DO Rev. A or HSPA 3G cellular networks and features 1GB of onboard memory storage and a card slot that allows for up to 16GB of additional storage.
But while Verizon (and Vodafone in Europe and elsewhere) is hoping that the BlackBerry Storm will be its own "iPhone killer," questions remain about whether the offering can match the popular Apple consumer device in several key areas. Here's a look at how the Storm stacks up against the iPhone in terms of call quality, data coverage, price and more. (View as a slideshow comparing the iPhone to the Storm.)
Call qualityYear after year, survey after survey, Verizon consistently gets the highest marks for wireless call quality, for the least amount of dropped calls and for overall network reliability. Verizon also outpaces AT&T in terms of customer service and in the cost of service, the latest JD Power survey finds. The bottom line: If call quality is your most important qualification, go Verizon.
3G network coverageVerizon and AT&T boast impressive 3G networks that span across the United States. Verizon's 3G network runs on the CDMA-based EV-DO Revision A wireless technology, while AT&T uses the GSM-based HSPA. A study conducted earlier this year by ComputerWorld showed that while AT&T and Verizon offered similar data speeds for their 3G networks, AT&T offered slightly faster service for peak download speeds, average download speeds and average upload speeds. Added to this, the iPhone is able to take advantage of local Wi-Fi hot spots to download data, while the Storm is not. Thus, the ability to access Wi-Fi as a cheaper alternative to 3G data service gives the iPhone a slight edge in this category.
CostOne of the most striking features of several new smartphones is their low cost. Apple and AT&T got the ball rolling earlier this year after they announced they were going to slash the price of the iPhone 3G to US$199. T-Mobile and Google decided to one-up them by selling their G1 smartphone for $179. So far, neither Verizon nor RIM have released details on the retail cost for the Storm, but it will likely have to be in the $200 range if it really aims to be the "iPhone killer" that its makers hope it will be.
Enterprise featuresThe iPhone is seen as a legitimate enterprise device now that it has access to Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync, a licensed data-synchronization protocol whose built-in support will give IT departments the ability to set password policies, set up VPN settings and perform remote data wipes on iPhones that have been lost or stolen. The iPhone also took a big step forward when it gained access to Cisco IPsec VPN, which Apple says will "ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data." However, as some analysts have pointed out, the BlackBerry still sets the standard for enterprise wireless devices due to its larger array of security policies, including the ability for IT departments to disable its digital cameras; to enable or shut down specific Bluetooth profiles and set how long the device is "discoverable" using Bluetooth; and to define which applications on a BlackBerry can access GPS capabilities.
KeypadsThis could be an intriguing matchup, since neither the iPhone nor the Storm has a physical slide-out keyboard like the T-Mobile G1 does. However, RIM says that it is changing the game of how touchscreen keypads work with what it calls a "clickable screen." This means that users can actually press down on the digital keys on the screen and feel them being pressed and released just like they'd feel a mouse button being pressed and released. Thus, users will in theory be able to type much easier by having the touch of a standard qwerty keyboard on the digital screen of their smartphone. Though we won't know for certain until it's tested out by more users, the Storm's keyboard gets the edge here for its ambition and creativity.
IT Buyer's Guides Whitepapers Webcasts Social Web Email Close
By Lisa Hoover
When Apple's iPhone stormed on the scene last year, it was heralded by users as the BlackBerry killer. Businesses, however, weren't as eager embrace its limitations. While some IT departments were willing to find workarounds, most kept the device at arm's length until lessons learned from past smartphones in the workplace-such as push e-mail and remote data wiping-were released.
Steve Jobs recently released the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and announced Microsoft Exchange support for the iPhone. Business users once again the SDK has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, Apple is giving the nod to only a small sliver of developers hoping to use it to create applications.
With both BlackBerrys and iPhones vying for the top spot (or pocket) of business-class users, the competition is a lot fiercer than it may appear. Indeed, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has been quietly helping its partners develop better tools, while other companies are (somewhat grudgingly) getting ready for an onslaught of iPhones in the workplace. The race, it seems, is on.
We understand it's only a matter of time before we're being pressured by the top execs to make [the iPhone] work in our environment but if it happens before some of our security, etc., issues are addressed, 'making it work in our environment' won't be easy," says Rob Paciorek, senior vice president and CIO of Access Intelligence.
BlackBerry and Apple: Fruit Salad?
When consumers decide which of the two handheld devices to purchase, it's not hard to reason that loyal Mac users would opt for another product in the Apple family. The challenge, then, falls on BlackBerry to keep Apple customers from hopping the fence by making their phones über-compatible with the Mac.
Andrew Bocking, director of handheld software for RIM, says though it's tempting for Mac users to jump on the iPhone bandwagon because of the perceived ease of working with products that are compatible out of the box, they might want to reconsider. "People need to evaluate what they want from their mobile device. The BlackBerry smartphone offers a leading communication device that is unrivaled in terms of e-mail and messaging, with great voice capabilities as well as an incredible multimedia experience."
Although RIM declines to comment on the specific number of BlackBerry users who also use Macs, Bocking says "there is a large group of BlackBerry for Mac users and that number continues to grow at a quick pace."
In order to keep BlackBerry users to keep from succumbing to the iPhone's temptation, one of RIM's main priorities is to make sure its BlackBerrys are Mac compatible. That's a tall order when developing tools to use on a primarily closed-source platform.
Information Appliance Associates (IAA), the company behind PocketMac, has spent four years creating a popular application that lets BlackBerry users sync their devices to Apple computers. VP of Marketing and Sales, Tim Goggin, says the development process hasn't always been easy.
"Our biggest challenge when developing PocketMac," he says, "was the initial task of making the Mac and the BlackBerry communicate with each other. All of that work had to be created from scratch. It took over a year to develop the first version, and we've been perfecting it ever since."
Both RIM and IAA provide different levels of tech support for PocketMac, and Goggin says RIM's ongoing involvement in the app has been a boon for both IAA and the end user. "RIM has a very enthusiastic partner since the initial development. Shortly before releasing the product, we became RIM Alliance Partners, and a year and a half after our joining the Alliance Partners program, RIM and Information Appliance Associates started discussing potential licensing of the app."
Goggin continues, "It's been over two years now that RIM has licensed and distributed PocketMac for BlackBerry on their site, and I think I can say that it's worked out very well for everyone, especially BlackBerry Mac users."
Well aware that the iPhone is gaining traction in the smartphone community, Goggin says IAA is planning ahead. "We will be building in extensive media syncing, including iTunes music and iPhoto photo syncing. Additionally, we'll have full support for Office:Mac 2008. And for upcoming versions, we'll be working on adding sync support for even more new applications."
The Smartphone Stew
Long before the iPhone began its march to take over the communications world, IT departments were already tasked with getting two other types of smartphones to coexist peacefully in the workplace: BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile devices. In fact, for some companies, the introduction of a new player on the smartphone field is old hat.
Access Intelligence's Paciorek says, "We went through this with Windows Mobile devices until secure push e-mail was made available last year."
He advises IT departments to get ready for the inevitable call to arms to make iPhones accessible in the workplace. "Make sure you do your research about what it can and can't do, and ask yourself some important questions. Like: Do the carrier-specific contracts mean anything to you? Will it work with your e-mail platform and security level? Will the lack of a real keypad be difficult for any of your users? Are there features that are available with other devices that aren't available with the iPhone (syncing Outlook notes, for example)?"
According to Paciorek, the biggest challenge will be from employees bringing their personal iPhones to work. "We worry about bandwidth so we certainly don't want users recklessly downloading music or videos over our network. That includes downloading to their local machine before syncing to their iPhone as well as downloading directly over our wireless network to their iPhone. We can place controls on both, but it just means another thing we have to monitor."
The biggest headache for Paciorek, however, isn't what happens when employees have their phones with them-it's when they don't. '[We] worry about security," he says. "Our BlackBerrys are managed directly by our BlackBerry Enterprise Server so if one of those gets lost or stolen, we can remotely wipe the device and not worry about losing company data. With the iPhones, that's not possible. If a person is using it as a business PDA and has any kind of data-whether personal or business related-we have no control over it if it's lost."
Paciorek says the best defense against these sorts of issues with iPhones is, of course, a good offense. "Make it clear to users what they can and can't do before they even consider the iPhone purchase. This way the users will have the proper expectations before they bring it to the office. At our company, we've let everyone know as soon as there is a secure way to push our e-mail to the iPhone and as soon as features like remote wipe are made available, we will support it. Until then, we won't."
Fortunately, there's good news for Paciorek and other CIOs making plans to integrate iPhones into the workplace; these are the very issues that will be addressed in the upcoming release of the iPhone software 2.0, currently in beta.
Access Intelligence's hard line against the use of iPhones in the workplace isn't meant as a commentary on the value of the device in general but rather what the company perceives as its potential limitations. Once those issues are addressed, the company plans to support the phones. "[We're] not trying to single [them] out because we're anti-Apple.... The iPhone is a great consumer device that may be a great business device someday."
When Apple's iPhone stormed on the scene last year, it was heralded by users as the BlackBerry killer. Businesses, however, weren't as eager embrace its limitations. While some IT departments were willing to find workarounds, most kept the device at arm's length until lessons learned from past smartphones in the workplace-such as push e-mail and remote data wiping-were released.
Steve Jobs recently released the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and announced Microsoft Exchange support for the iPhone. Business users once again the SDK has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, Apple is giving the nod to only a small sliver of developers hoping to use it to create applications.
With both BlackBerrys and iPhones vying for the top spot (or pocket) of business-class users, the competition is a lot fiercer than it may appear. Indeed, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has been quietly helping its partners develop better tools, while other companies are (somewhat grudgingly) getting ready for an onslaught of iPhones in the workplace. The race, it seems, is on.
We understand it's only a matter of time before we're being pressured by the top execs to make [the iPhone] work in our environment but if it happens before some of our security, etc., issues are addressed, 'making it work in our environment' won't be easy," says Rob Paciorek, senior vice president and CIO of Access Intelligence.
BlackBerry and Apple: Fruit Salad?
When consumers decide which of the two handheld devices to purchase, it's not hard to reason that loyal Mac users would opt for another product in the Apple family. The challenge, then, falls on BlackBerry to keep Apple customers from hopping the fence by making their phones über-compatible with the Mac.
Andrew Bocking, director of handheld software for RIM, says though it's tempting for Mac users to jump on the iPhone bandwagon because of the perceived ease of working with products that are compatible out of the box, they might want to reconsider. "People need to evaluate what they want from their mobile device. The BlackBerry smartphone offers a leading communication device that is unrivaled in terms of e-mail and messaging, with great voice capabilities as well as an incredible multimedia experience."
Although RIM declines to comment on the specific number of BlackBerry users who also use Macs, Bocking says "there is a large group of BlackBerry for Mac users and that number continues to grow at a quick pace."
In order to keep BlackBerry users to keep from succumbing to the iPhone's temptation, one of RIM's main priorities is to make sure its BlackBerrys are Mac compatible. That's a tall order when developing tools to use on a primarily closed-source platform.
Information Appliance Associates (IAA), the company behind PocketMac, has spent four years creating a popular application that lets BlackBerry users sync their devices to Apple computers. VP of Marketing and Sales, Tim Goggin, says the development process hasn't always been easy.
"Our biggest challenge when developing PocketMac," he says, "was the initial task of making the Mac and the BlackBerry communicate with each other. All of that work had to be created from scratch. It took over a year to develop the first version, and we've been perfecting it ever since."
Both RIM and IAA provide different levels of tech support for PocketMac, and Goggin says RIM's ongoing involvement in the app has been a boon for both IAA and the end user. "RIM has a very enthusiastic partner since the initial development. Shortly before releasing the product, we became RIM Alliance Partners, and a year and a half after our joining the Alliance Partners program, RIM and Information Appliance Associates started discussing potential licensing of the app."
Goggin continues, "It's been over two years now that RIM has licensed and distributed PocketMac for BlackBerry on their site, and I think I can say that it's worked out very well for everyone, especially BlackBerry Mac users."
Well aware that the iPhone is gaining traction in the smartphone community, Goggin says IAA is planning ahead. "We will be building in extensive media syncing, including iTunes music and iPhoto photo syncing. Additionally, we'll have full support for Office:Mac 2008. And for upcoming versions, we'll be working on adding sync support for even more new applications."
The Smartphone Stew
Long before the iPhone began its march to take over the communications world, IT departments were already tasked with getting two other types of smartphones to coexist peacefully in the workplace: BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile devices. In fact, for some companies, the introduction of a new player on the smartphone field is old hat.
Access Intelligence's Paciorek says, "We went through this with Windows Mobile devices until secure push e-mail was made available last year."
He advises IT departments to get ready for the inevitable call to arms to make iPhones accessible in the workplace. "Make sure you do your research about what it can and can't do, and ask yourself some important questions. Like: Do the carrier-specific contracts mean anything to you? Will it work with your e-mail platform and security level? Will the lack of a real keypad be difficult for any of your users? Are there features that are available with other devices that aren't available with the iPhone (syncing Outlook notes, for example)?"
According to Paciorek, the biggest challenge will be from employees bringing their personal iPhones to work. "We worry about bandwidth so we certainly don't want users recklessly downloading music or videos over our network. That includes downloading to their local machine before syncing to their iPhone as well as downloading directly over our wireless network to their iPhone. We can place controls on both, but it just means another thing we have to monitor."
The biggest headache for Paciorek, however, isn't what happens when employees have their phones with them-it's when they don't. '[We] worry about security," he says. "Our BlackBerrys are managed directly by our BlackBerry Enterprise Server so if one of those gets lost or stolen, we can remotely wipe the device and not worry about losing company data. With the iPhones, that's not possible. If a person is using it as a business PDA and has any kind of data-whether personal or business related-we have no control over it if it's lost."
Paciorek says the best defense against these sorts of issues with iPhones is, of course, a good offense. "Make it clear to users what they can and can't do before they even consider the iPhone purchase. This way the users will have the proper expectations before they bring it to the office. At our company, we've let everyone know as soon as there is a secure way to push our e-mail to the iPhone and as soon as features like remote wipe are made available, we will support it. Until then, we won't."
Fortunately, there's good news for Paciorek and other CIOs making plans to integrate iPhones into the workplace; these are the very issues that will be addressed in the upcoming release of the iPhone software 2.0, currently in beta.
Access Intelligence's hard line against the use of iPhones in the workplace isn't meant as a commentary on the value of the device in general but rather what the company perceives as its potential limitations. Once those issues are addressed, the company plans to support the phones. "[We're] not trying to single [them] out because we're anti-Apple.... The iPhone is a great consumer device that may be a great business device someday."
Apple asks judge to make iPhone lawsuit moot
Dropped-call suit should be dismissed since unhappy users didn't seek refund, lawyers say
By Gregg Keizer
October 11, 2008 (Computerworld) Apple Inc. has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by dissatisfied iPhone 3G owners because they did not ask the company to repair their iPhones or refund their money, according to court papers made public Friday.
In the motion, Apple's lawyers moved to dismiss the suit filed in August by an Alabama woman who said her iPhone 3G dropped calls, couldn't reliably connect to AT&T Inc.'s network and was slower than advertised.
"The Defective iPhone 3G appeared to connect to the 3G standard and protocol less than 25% of the time," Jessica Smith's suit said. "Additionally, Plaintiff experienced an inordinate amount of dropped calls." Smith was later joined by another iPhone owner, Wilton Triggs, in the lawsuit, which has also sought class-action status.
iPhone users began complaining about making calls and keeping a connection within days of the smart phone's July 11 debut. Since then, Apple has released a pair of iPhone software updates, including one in September that seemed to solve network problems for some users.
On Friday, however, Apple said the lawsuit should be tossed out.
"Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint conspicuously omits one critical condition precedent to all three causes of action: an allegation that they contacted Apple to seek a repair of the alleged defects or a replacement iPhone 3G under Apple's One (1) Year Limited Warranty," Apple's attorneys argued.
By Alabama law, as well as the terms of Apple's warranty, consumers are required to ask for repair or a replacement, or a refund, before filing a lawsuit, Apple said. "Plaintiffs do not allege that they notified Apple of the alleged problems they experienced, or otherwise attempted to obtain a repair or replacement under warranty," the motion continued. "Instead, Plaintiffs allege that Apple is generally 'aware of the above-stated defects' and has 'attempted to undertake corrective action too late with little or no success'."
Apple's motion for dismissal cited sections of the Alabama Commercial Code, Apple's own warranty and other legal precedents in moving that the judge make Smith's lawsuit moot.
Two weeks after Smith sued Apple, a New Jersey man filed a separate lawsuit in federal court. Like Smith, Eulardi Tanseco said his iPhone dropped calls and wouldn't consistently connect with AT&T's network.
Apple has not filed a response to those charges.
By Gregg Keizer
October 11, 2008 (Computerworld) Apple Inc. has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by dissatisfied iPhone 3G owners because they did not ask the company to repair their iPhones or refund their money, according to court papers made public Friday.
In the motion, Apple's lawyers moved to dismiss the suit filed in August by an Alabama woman who said her iPhone 3G dropped calls, couldn't reliably connect to AT&T Inc.'s network and was slower than advertised.
"The Defective iPhone 3G appeared to connect to the 3G standard and protocol less than 25% of the time," Jessica Smith's suit said. "Additionally, Plaintiff experienced an inordinate amount of dropped calls." Smith was later joined by another iPhone owner, Wilton Triggs, in the lawsuit, which has also sought class-action status.
iPhone users began complaining about making calls and keeping a connection within days of the smart phone's July 11 debut. Since then, Apple has released a pair of iPhone software updates, including one in September that seemed to solve network problems for some users.
On Friday, however, Apple said the lawsuit should be tossed out.
"Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint conspicuously omits one critical condition precedent to all three causes of action: an allegation that they contacted Apple to seek a repair of the alleged defects or a replacement iPhone 3G under Apple's One (1) Year Limited Warranty," Apple's attorneys argued.
By Alabama law, as well as the terms of Apple's warranty, consumers are required to ask for repair or a replacement, or a refund, before filing a lawsuit, Apple said. "Plaintiffs do not allege that they notified Apple of the alleged problems they experienced, or otherwise attempted to obtain a repair or replacement under warranty," the motion continued. "Instead, Plaintiffs allege that Apple is generally 'aware of the above-stated defects' and has 'attempted to undertake corrective action too late with little or no success'."
Apple's motion for dismissal cited sections of the Alabama Commercial Code, Apple's own warranty and other legal precedents in moving that the judge make Smith's lawsuit moot.
Two weeks after Smith sued Apple, a New Jersey man filed a separate lawsuit in federal court. Like Smith, Eulardi Tanseco said his iPhone dropped calls and wouldn't consistently connect with AT&T's network.
Apple has not filed a response to those charges.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
