iPhone on Verizon – Cnets Thoughts

Yes, it’s finally here. After almost four years of endless gossip, analyst forecasts, and so-called leaks, the Verizon iPhone is a reality. We’re thrilled, to be honest, if only because we never have to write another rumor story again. The iPhone 4′s arrival on a second U.S. network is significant, of course, but the smartphone market is a thousand times more mature than it was in 2007 when the first iPhone hit. So, though we expect Verizon to gain a lot of new customers, its iPhone faces heavy competition from rival carriers, and even from within Verizon’s own lineup.

Before we break down the device, we’ll offer the cost and release details. Big Red will match AT&T’s pricing, which is $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB version, but unlike AT&T it will offer unlimited data plans. Existing customers can preorder the black version beginning February 3, with full availability following on February 10. Verizon was listing the white iPhone 4 on its Web site earlier today but a carrier spokeswoman confirmed to CNET that the long-delayed model won’t be released until later in the spring.

Design
Besides a couple of changes, the Verizon iPhone 4 barely differs from its AT&T counterpart. First off, Apple moved the ringer-mute switch further down the handset’s left side to accommodate the CDMA antenna. Unfortunately, that means the current selection of iPhone 4 bumpers won’t fit. And while we’re on the subject, Verizon iPhone customers will not be entitled to a free bumper case.

Secondly, the Verizon handset’s antenna has a new design. During her hands-on inspection, CNET’s Bonnie Cha found that the gap that sits next to the headset jack on the GSM version has moved to the left side (where the ringer switch was). The gap on the lower left side made famous by “antennagate” is still there, but CNET has found that reception does not degrade if you touch the gap during a call (more on that later).

Hot spot
Honestly, we weren’t expecting the Verizon iPhone to offer new features, but we love that it bests its GSM rival by offering a mobile hot spot that can support up to five devices. Though it’s hardly a new feature–Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile currently offer handsets with that functionality–it is new to Apple. And it will make the Verizon iPhone a better mobile computing device. The bad news is that customers will likely pay an additional $20 per month to use it. That’s cheaper than Sprint’s $29 monthly charge, but more expensive than T-Mobile’s $14.99 fee.

No 4G
The Verizon iPhone 4 will not support Verizon’s 4G LTE network. That’s disappointing, but hardly surprising. As we’ve said before, Apple is not a company to jump on a bleeding-edge technology. Verizon’s 4G network has yet to be used by cell phone customers (only laptop users are on it now), and Apple will make sure it can deliver the polished user experience that it always seeks. Also, Apple will wait until LTE covers more territory. On the other hand, you can expect a 4G model on both Verizon and AT&T in the coming months. Sure, you’ll have to upgrade to a new version, but Apple is a master at that game.

Other features
You’ll get the usual goodies like the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, the front-facing VGA camera, Bluetooth, a digital compass, Retina Display, e-mail, voice control, assisted GPS and Google Maps, the Safari browser, access to apps and media through iTunes, and FaceTime over Wi-Fi. The Verizon iPhone stands apart, however, by offering iOS 4.2.5 over the iOS 4.2.1 that’s currently on the AT&T handset. We’re still confirming what specific changes iOS 4.2.5 brings.

Is the PalmPad a recycled HP Slate?

Fox News says this is the upcoming PalmPad from HP. But it’s the same diagram HP used to introduce its Slate 500 in October.

(Credit: Fox News)

 

A new report says that HP will show its WebOS tablet at CES next month, called the PalmPad.

HP has been talking about the PalmPad almost since the company bought Palm and its WebOS operating system in the spring, though the company has repeatedly said the device won’t actually be shipped until the end of the first quarter.

But a Fox News story today has some very curious details. The Fox reporter’s source forwarded him a diagram that is purported to be the forthcoming PalmPad. It has few labels except for a note about an optional PalmPad dock. The report says HP will introduce not one, but three slightly different models of the WebOS-based tablet, and that “they’re collectively a spin-off of the never-released HP Slate.”

That got us thinking, so we looked back at our own story about the HP Slate 500–which was announced by HP in late October with a price tag of $799. We realized that the PalmPad diagram in Fox’s report is the same as HP’s Slate 500 diagram in our earlier report, except for all the labels missing in the PalmPad diagram save for the dock, whose label has been changed from “Optional HP Slate 500 dock” to “Optional palmPad dock.”

There are several possible conclusions here: Fox’s source misrepresented the diagram and details–it’s very odd that they would say the HP Slate was never released when the HP Slate 500 was introduced exactly two months ago. Or they mean a different HP Slate. Or perhaps HP recycles general diagrams for internal purposes. On the other hand, there is some possibility HP is repurposing the HP Slate hardware for the PalmPad running, according to Fox, WebOS 2.5.1.

But would HP actually use the same hardware running a full-blown desktop operating system meant to target business users, and instead slap the lightweight, mobile operating system WebOS on it and try to sell it to the same people who are considering an iPad or Galaxy Tab?

We’ve reached out to HP to see if someone over there can clear this up.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20026313-260.html#ixzz18mWmZjVj

Android Kicks A little Apple But Still Stubs Toe on Blackberry

NPD Group reveals sales of Google’s Android handsets overtook iPhone sales in the US during the last quarter, promoting the operating system to the number two position behind RIM’s Blackberry OS. The breakdown based on Q1 2010 unit sales puts Blackberry at 36%, Android at 28%, the iPhone at 21%, and other platforms occupying the remaining 15%.

Although significant, this isn’t entirely surprising. Because although the iPhone has and continues to be a major success, it is still only a two-model family available through a sole carrier, AT&T. Android and Blackberry, on the other hand, are featured in a wide range of handsets with varying prices and from a larger selection of carriers, resulting in inevitably higher sales.

With Android and iPhone OS being direct rivals, and the former finally overtaking the latter, the questions that now come to mind are: Will the new 4G iPhone on Verizon’s Network help save Apple sales? Will the new HP/PALM phone and tablet be the next Apple Threat? Only time will tell, and what a great time it will be. Gotta love tech!

New Verizon LTE (4G)Blazing Trails for Wireless Broadband

Verizon, the largest wireless provider in the United States based on total subscribers, announced plans to expand its next-generation wireless broadband beyond the initial test sites of Boston and Seattle. The LTE test market has been an overwhelming success and soon another 30 markets will get to enjoy the blazing 4G speeds as well.

Verizon is very impressed with the initial LTE results–testing the ability of the wireless broadband for voice calls, streaming video, Web browsing, and file uploads and downloads. With peak download speeds approaching 50mbps (approximately 50X faster than the current 3G), the Verizon LTE network has averaged 5 to 12mbps download, and 2 to 5mbps.

Wireless broadband speeds that fast–rivaling the broadband speeds currently delivered by wired broadband providers–open up new doors for businesses and business professionals. Customers located in rural markets with no access to wired broadband may now have an option to subscribe to equivalent service through 4G / LTE wireless broadband.

For customers in rural areas, as well as customers already served by wired broadband options, LTE broadband speeds also provide an opportunity to converge services and cut costs. If the wireless broadband alone is sufficient, businesses and business professionals don’t need to pay for both wired and wireless broadband. If one of the two is going to get cut, it makes sense to drop the wired broadband and stick with the one that allows the flexibility to connect from wherever and whenever you need to (assuming there is a signal).

Of course, wired broadband providers are working to push the envelope and exponentially increase the bandwidth they deliver. While speeds of 5 to 10mbps are common with cable modem and DSL broadband today, wired broadband providers are working toward 50mbps speeds.

The bottom line is that, while 4G / LTE wireless broadband is catching up to where the average wired broadband is today, wired broadband is not stagnant and will soon deliver even faster speeds. Certainly, customers satisfied with today’s wired broadband speeds can still opt to eliminate one and rely solely on the 4g / LTE wireless broadband. However, many customers will still embrace the bleeding edge speeds that wired broadband is striving for.

Tony Melone, senior vice president and chief technical officer at Verizon Wireless, said in a statement “As device makers, manufacturers and others around the world begin to introduce newer and faster products to take advantage of these incredible new speeds, Verizon Wireless will be positioned to offer our customers new and exciting products on the nation’s first 4G LTE network.”

AT&T is not as far along in its 4G testing or rollout as Verizon–possibly a year or more behind where Verizon is. However, AT&T has consistently proven itself as the fastest 3G network, so it will be interesting to see what kind of speed AT&T can deliver when it catches up on implementing the next generation wireless technology.

AMD Finally Comes To The Table with a NEW 6 Core CPU!

Graphics and other notes courtesy of AMD and Tom’s Hardware.

AMD is launching two Phenom II X6 processors: the 1090T and 1055T.

Both models are architecturally identical. That is to say they’re monolithic hexa-core designs with 128KB L1 cache per core (64KB instruction and 64KB data), 512KB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 6MB L3 cache. See graphic below…

This is, of course, a different approach than Intel’s. With Intel’s six-core Gulftown design, Intel increased the size of its shared L3 in order to maintain what its architects considered an optimal ratio between cores and cache. Because AMD isn’t also shifting to a smaller manufacturing process, it really can’t follow suit and keep the Phenom II economically viable at the same time. But as we’ll see in the benchmarks, simply increasing core count is enough to give the X6 a significant boost in threaded apps.

AMD  is maintaining the 45 nm core as a result, die size increases from 258 square millimeters to a whopping 346. The NEW Thuban design is closely related to existing hexa-core Istanbul-based Opteron CPUs. From that, we can safely assume the count lands around 904 million, up from approximately 758 million. That’s not as large an increase as Intel’s six-core design because Gulftown’s L3 is transistor-heavy. So, you can argue that AMD is getting the best return for the added complexity.

Though AMD won’t comment directly, we know through a handful of motherboard vendors that there will be Thuban-based quad-core CPUs following in the wake of the 1090T and 1055T. They’ll likely be armed with Turbo CORE as well, and apparently it’ll be possible for certain lucky buyers to unlock the two disabled cores.

	Clock Frequency	Price	HT Speed	Lith. Node	Total L2 Cache	Shared L3 Cache	TDP	Voltage	Max. Temp.
Phenom II X6 1090T	3.2 GHz (3.6 GHz with Turbo)	$285	4 GT/s	45 nm SOI	3MB	6MB	125W	1.125-1.4V	62 C
Phenom II X6 1055T	2.8 GHz (3.3 GHz with Turbo)	$199	4 GT/s	45 nm SOI	3MB	6MB	125W	1.125-1.4V	62 C
Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition	3.4 GHz	$185	4 GT/s	45 nm SOI	2MB	6MB	125W (w/ rev. C3)	.825-1.4V	62 C

New Tech, New Names

In a world where every piece of technology-turned-marketing needs to be rolled into the name somehow, AMD follows in Intel’s footsteps by tacking another letter onto its product naming scheme.

Intel has the Core i7-980X, which, dissected, means absolutely nothing informative.

AMD’s new Phenom II X6 1090T and 1055T. At least the II is indicative of a second-generation Phenom family. The X6, of course, tells us that these processors are hexa-core—that’s fairly easy for most folks to figure out. The 1090 and 1055 are arbitrary performance indicators, and the T tells you these CPUs are Turbo CORE-enabled.

The 1090T runs at 3.2 GHz by default (down from the Phenom II X4 965’s 3.4 GHz). When Turbo CORE is active, it can hit speeds of up to 3.6 GHz, though as our experimentation on the next page shows, this isn’t something  seen on a regular basis. It sports a 2 GHz (4 GT/s) HyperTransport interconnect and is rated for a 125W TDP.

The 1055T operates at 2.8 GHz by default and runs at up to 3.2 GHz in Turbo CORE mode. It also boasts a 125W TDP, along with the same HyperTransport connection able to move up to 16 GB/s bidirectionally.

Both CPUs should be able to handle a fair amount of overclocking and unlike the Intel’s I have worked on. AMD is always easy to overclock.

As a avid AMD user living in an office of mixed systems including a dual quad Core MAC PRO, my dual dual core AMD 6400 Black Edition have been really struggling. It’s been 2 years and although I feel very happy with the CPU performance of my rig. I have to say I am sick of all the  Intel systems lately. I have been missing AMD. I am pretty sure even Intel is missing AMD at this point. SO FINALLY AMD IS KICKING ASS AGAIN! And for less than half of the price of an Intel 6 core!!! If you could use it – I highly recommend checking them out.

Nokia N8 Boasts Beefy Specs, Revamped Symbian 3 OS

Written by:

Daniel Ionescu : PC World MAG

// <![CDATA[// Apr 27, 2010 8:15 am

Nokia announced on Tuesday its latest smartphone, the multimedia-heavy N8, featuring a 12-megapixel camera and HD video recording. Its hardware specs could make any iPhone user jealous, but as the first phone to feature the latest iteration of the Symbian OS, the N8 will have to prove that Nokia’s software is a worthy competitor, too.

Available in the third quarter of 2010, Nokia says the N8 will cost just under $500 for an unlocked carrier-independent model (i.e. no carrier subsidy announced yet), and would be able to work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s US networks.

The Nokia N8 can take photos with its 12-megapixel camera (with flash) and shoots HD videos (720p). It also has a secondary video camera on the front for video calling. You can view your recordings on the phone’s 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen or connect it to your home cinema system via the built-in HDMI port.

Connectivity-wise, the N8 features Wi-Fi (b, g, and the speedy n standard), in addition to Bluetooth 2.1. You also get GPS and A-GPS positioning systems, with Nokia’s free and complete navigation solution, Ovi Maps. The N8 comes with 16GB of on-board storage (expandable via microSD cards up to 32GB) and also features an FM receiver and transmitter (which will eliminate the need for cables to listen to music from the phone in your car).

Nokia’s real gamble though, is not with the N8 hardware, but with the operating system delivered on the device. The Symbian OS has been widely criticized for being sluggish, and lagging behind competitors like the iPhone or Google’s Android OS.

But with the N8, Nokia is putting out its first phone featuring the revamped Symbian 3 OS, which includes several new features, such as multi-touch, flick scrolling, and pinch-to-zoom. Symbian 3 adds several other features found on competing smartphone platforms, like multiple home screens and home screen widgets (similar to Android) for Facebook and Twitter, among others.

I haven’t had a chance to test the N8 yet, but late last week Russia-based Mobile-Review got their hands on one, and by the looks of it (via Google translation), they were not particularly impressed with Symbian 3, despite the beefy hardware. I will hold back such judgements though, until I get a proper hands-on with the Nokia N8.

RIM Demos BlackBerry 6 OS

On  Tuesday RIM demonstrated the new BlackBerry 6 OS, which will be coming out on new BlackBerry cellular phones next quarter. In a new video, the company showed a new Web browser, what appears to be a multi touch animated screen, a new video and media player, and new simplified menus.

The demo shows a new summary home screen that combines missed calls, calendar entries and messages. It seems to also include exceptional multitasking capability. Also every screen has new menus that somewhat resemble the iPhones  but with a cleaner edge. All of this extra capability also comes with a tagging capability that is one step beyond what is available on the market today.

To help deal with the ever popular social web there is a new social app that seems to combine updates from Facebook and Twitter, while letting you chat online with your friends over multiple chat and messenger sites including Google Talk, AIM,Microsoft and Yahoo.

According to PC MAG.com,the new BlackBerry Web browser uses WebKit, the same engine that powers Apple’s Safari browser. The demo shows a user finger-flicking to move across pages and popping up a little set of miniaturized pages to switch between tabs.



Week 17 Distance Learning Project Part 2

Hello again, Its been about a week since I got back from NYC and it took me this long to write a new post because I got stuck writing the technical specifications and requirements down for out partners in other parts of the country. I have to say, even with a few setbacks that we initially experienced I am pretty impressed with this system so far. It’s almost working too well.

Picture below is a sample of what we are working with. Here is a example of a classroom below on the right watching an instructor on the left in a remote location. In the photo on the right above the displays you can see we are using a Canon HD video camera hooked up to the LifeSize system via Component Video cables. On the left we are using one of the LifeSize PTZ cameras to capture the video image. If you could see that handsome guy at the podium is me. This was just for the purpose of the photo as I am not one of the instructors.

For me, I like to keep my tests as straight forward and simple as possible. Often, letting me recreate a scenario if I run across any errors. I like to separate all the pieces and add in additional parts one at a time to better understand problems that come from the changes that are made. This also allows me to double check each graduation of building the system while isolating the problem component to make adjustments when possible.

The big questions are;

1. 1. Does LifeSize deliver what they promise? So far yes followed by a tiny depends… Yes it delivers exceptional frame rate and smooth HD video quality to multiple remote locations at a time for a minimal cost using minimal bandwidth. Isolating the system components one at a time though revealed a problem that is common across all the brands that I have seen. The problem is the camera that comes with the system. In our testing the camera is the weak point and calls for very specific lighting to get the best picture quality. Also like other PTZ cameras from other video conferencing systems the camera can only do one function at a time. In other words to move from corner to corner of a set, you have to pan first, than tilt. Fine for small rooms or for standard corporate conferencing. But, not good for large classrooms.
2. 2. Is this the best deal for the money (ROI)? At this point yes, without a doubt LifeSize has the best price point, versatility, expandability and compatibility we could find.
3. 3. How is the endurance or “How much of a beating can they take?” Well the longest we ran them continually was about six hours. During this time we had only three additional sites up and running conferencing on our Room 220 screens using the built in multipoint bridge. We tested the remote cameras and sound in the other locations. We tested the constant frame rate with lots of movement in at least one of the other locations. We were able to run multiple cameras in multiple locations in full 1080p / 30 frame HD on a single call for about six hours. However these systems may be asked to be running more than seven hours a day with six or seven additional callers on one call. So further endurance testing will be required.

As you can see from the questions above, one of the biggest problems we faced during testing was using the LifeSize PTZ. For a larger classroom we wanted to have a PTZ that can zoom more than 4X and work better in lower light situations. Luckily for us the LifeSize codec was so robust it can take just about any camera input and with minimal time we plugged a HD Canon HFS 21 camera into the system. (We recommend using Component video as the HDMI signal interferes with the remote control characteristics of the camera). The Canon camera has a 10X optical zoom lens with a super clean 200X digital zoom. It shows amazing clarity when compared to any other PTZ and best off it plugs write into the system. I even made a PTZ controller for it. I will send the specs along with photos in the next blog post. As for now, it looks like we have a pretty solid solution going in place.

The Google Android Tablet: Coming Soon?

You got to see this:

The Google Android Tablet: Coming Soon?

Original Article can be seen here.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194036/the_google_android_tablet_coming_soon.html

From -  JR Raphael, PC World

// Apr 12, 2010 2:38 pm

Watch out, iPad: Google may be getting into the tablet game. In a move reminiscent of its recent step into mobile phone design, Google is reportedly working on its own custom Android-powered tablet.

Most of the specifics are still unknown — what features a Google tablet would include, for example, or who would manufacture it — but if there’s one thing we can count on, it’s with whom a Google-made tablet would compete.

Google Android Tablet: What We Know

The Google Android tablet news comes by way of a story published in The New York Times on Sunday. The story, a piece about upcoming competition to Apple’s iPad, states that Google is currently “exploring the idea” of creating its own tablet computing device. The gadget is described as “an e-reader that would function like a computer.”

The info, according to The Times, comes straight from the big dog’s mouth: Google CEO Eric Schmidt is said to have divulged the Google tablet scoop while chatting with friends at a recent party in L.A. Other insiders supposedly confirmed the concept.

“People with direct knowledge of the project — who did not want to be named because they said they were unauthorized to speak publicly about the device — said the company had been experimenting in ‘stealth mode’ with a few publishers to explore delivery of books, magazines and other content on a tablet,” The Times reports.

Envisioning a Google Android Tablet

Knowing the principles of the Android operating system, one can make a few educated guesses about what a Google Android tablet could be and how it might compare to Apple’s iPad. First and foremost, it’d likely be a far more open device in terms of customization: While Apple tends to maintain a tight grip on its user experience, Android-based devices typically allow users to configure the interface to their likings and replace stock components as they choose.

The same principle applies to applications: Compared to Apple’s highly controlled approach to app development and approval, Google’s Android Market for apps allows anyone to submit and publish programs without scrutiny. Android-powered devices — with the exception of those that run on AT&T — also let users download apps from unofficial third-party sources. One would imagine these qualities would be among the basic tenets of a Google-made Android tablet.

Along those same lines, a Google Android tablet would likely provide support for Flash — something Apple has long forbidden on its mobile computing devices. The existence of an open app marketplace could also mean immediate support for tethering, as we’ve seen happen via third-party utilities on Android phones. And, of course, any Android tablet would presumably provide feature-rich apps for Google services such as Gmail and Google Voice, something Apple also does not permit.

As for the device’s form, Google has previously published conceptual images of how a Google-centric tablet might look. Those concepts, however, revolved around the idea of a Chrome OS-based tablet, so they may or may not apply to an Android-based design.

Google Android Tablet: A Reality Check

It’s fun to imagine what a Google Android tablet could do, but don’t let some of the headlines out there fool you: From what we know so far, there’s no reason to believe a Google-made Android tablet is an “imminent” or even a certain thing.

Read back over what the info provided by The New York Times actually states: Google is “exploring the idea” of building a tablet device. It is “experimenting” with possibilities. Despite some bloggers’ tendencies to fill in the blanks with big words, there’s no indication that this is a done deal, let alone something that’s likely to occur at any moment.

We do know, however, that a slew of new tablets is on the way for 2010, and many of them are expected to be powered by Android. So whether or not Google ends up building its own tablet, numerous new options will soon be headed our way. The iPad may have been the first serious contender, but it won’t be the only one for long.

Back to NYC, Distance Learning Project part 1 – week 14

Good evening everyone, I am going back to NYC for week 14 of the big distance learning project. We are just entering the second stage of testing and about to run the true system BETA. It’s exciting to see a plan start to come to fruition. I will be blogging over the next few days about the project, the people at the agency I work with and all the issues we come across.

The system we have decided to go with is the LifeSize HD units. We didn’t make this decision on a whim, we researched the standard systems from Cisco, Polycom, Tandberg and LifeSize. I can’t say enough about the cooperation that I got from my friends at Cisco who basically told me that the latest from Cisco is not up to par. HMM… Cisco people telling me about Cisco weaknesses. Polycom just didn’t have the HD system we were looking for at the moment, however they are finally going HD. Tandberg seems to be the 800lb Gorilla in the corner of the room. The reseller reps and engineers from Tandberg were exemplary. I really enjoyed the show and the talks with Tandberg. When all was said and done the winner was LifeSize.

HOW could this happen you ask? How in the world can a Cisco person who bleeds CISCO ever choose anything but Cisco? Well, let me tell you. I have been fighting the MAN for a long time and although I prefer Cisco service, long term functionality etc… In the end I have to recommend the very best bang for the buck, both in the short term and full ROI. LifeSize had all the capability we were looking for. At about 1/3 the price. Also most interestingly it uses about 1/3 the bandwidth to have a TRUE HD (720p . 60) conversation only takes 1.1MB up/down. With Cisco / Tandberg you need a minimum 3.5MB up/down for it’s best 720p. 30. What advantages and disadvantages do you get from Lifesize vs. the competition.

The answer and review of tests will be coming…