NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

iPhone 5 Sells Out in Record Time: DNews Nugget

iPhone 5 Sells Out in Record Time: Pre-orders of Apple's new iPhone 5 sold out 20 times faster than previous preorders, reports TechCrunch.

Pre-orders went live at midnight last night and sold out within an hour, compared with 22 hours for the iPhone 4S and 20 hours for the iPhone 4.

The crush of pre-orders caused both Apple's and their wireless carriers' sites to buckle, with many people getting error messages and not able to place their pre-orders.

It's officially an obsession.

via TechCrunch.com

GET MORE MUST-READ NUGGETS HERE!

---

Email:

---

Apple's iPhone 5: The Price of Thin

There is a new iPhone, it's called the iPhone 5, it has a larger screen and it supports 4G LTE wireless broadband. That much you should have guessed.

But the smartphone Apple introduced today (available Sept. 21 on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless for $199 and up on a two-year contract) brings less obvious changes worth discussing.

Most important among them: battery life, cited by Apple as eight hours of continuous Web browsing over LTE (Long Term Evolution). The Cupertino, Calif., company cites just six hours of 3G browsing on last year's iPhone 4S -- making this the first time I can remember battery life improving with an upgrade from 3G to LTE.

PHOTOS: The iPhone and 10 Other Disruptive Techs

Manufacturers of LTE Android phones that struggle to survive a day on a charge should be embarrassed by that.

Apple also thought differently (if you will) with the iPhone 5's larger screen. Instead of expanding it in every dimension -- something Android vendors have been taking to extremes in devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II -- Apple built up rather than out. That is, the iPhone 5's 4-inch, 1136 by 640 pixel display is taller but no wider than the 3.5-in. screens on older iPhones.

DNEWS VIDEO: iPhone in Space Explained

Apps not updated for these changed proportions will appear in letterboxed form; I expect that to be a temporary and swiftly fixed inconvenience. But I don't know that reading will ever feel much different with the phone held upright.

The iPhone 5's camera has the same 8-megapixel resolution as the one on the iPhone 4S, but Apple touts updated hardware and software that allow for quicker shots and better quality in low-light situations. Phone cameras have historically been awful in those aspects.

It also includes an instant-panorama mode that catches up to what Android phones have included for a while. Apple forgot to credit its competition for any inspiration.

The iPhone 5's designers somehow also made this device thinner and lighter than the 4S: about .3 inches thick, .07 thinner than its predecessor and just under 4 ounces, or about an ounce less than before.

But to pull off that triumph of miniaturization, Apple took a scalpel to compatibility.

The iPhone 5's new "Lightning" dock connector is, Apple says, "more durable" and works even if you plug it in upside down. But it doesn't work with the enormous universe of old cables, accessories, speakers and car kits without a $29 adapter that doesn't come in the box. If Apple was going to make that kind of switch, couldn't it have adopted the micro-USB standard everybody else uses?

ANALYSIS: iPhone 5 LIVE: Watch the News

On the inside, the iPhone 5 uses a "nano-SIM" card instead of the micro-SIM of the 4 and 4S. This makes the new model incompatible with existing SIM cards -- all to save about .0037 cubic inches of space. That fact seems to have gone unmentioned in Apple's keynote (which went on to feature a badly needed refresh of its bloated iTunes application and a new line of iPods).

One more thing didn't get much attention in Apple's keynote, but maybe the company doesn't feel the need to brag about this anymore. With its history of consistent software updates for older iPhones -- most will get the new model's iOS 6 software on Sept. 19 -- Apple has given iPhone 5 buyers confidence that they, too, will be supported for years to come.

Android vendors have left their users with no such assurance. They should end their sorry habit of abandoning older phones before they race to make new ones any thinner.

Credit: Image via Apple PR

---

Email:

---

FAA to Reassess Device Rules: DNews Nugget

FAA Assessing Future Cell Phone Use for Passengers: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set the rules for what devices can be used when and where in United States (and above it). According to CNN, the FAA is set to reassess their current restrictions on mobile usage.

Likely, the only changes will come with non-broadcasting mobile devices -- hopefully including devices set to "airplane mode."

As of now, the FCC will not allow cell phone usage on airplanes, because the wireless capabilities can interfere with other networks running on the ground. Not to mention, a recent study claimed "75 instances in which consumer electronics were suspected of interfering with plane systems," said CNN.

High-speed internet has come to airplanes in place of the back-of-seat phones that are now as difficult to find as a pay phone.

It will be a long while before we can make cell phone calls on airplanes, and currently the FCC and FAA agree this is the best plan for now. However, a new government group, set to assemble this fall, will begin the process of studying, "current policies and procedures governing portable electronic devices." via CNN

GET MORE MUST-READ NUGGETS HERE!

---

Email:

---

Internet Costs and Choices Still Stink

A new study from the Federal Communications Commission says Internet access in the United States has gotten a whole lot better since last summer. If only that were the whole story.

"Measuring Broadband America -- July 2012" follows up on a report last August that found many big-name Internet providers delivered downloads slower than advertised figures, especially during peak evening hours.

The FCC now finds digital subscriber line, cable and fiber-optic connections more likely to meet their advance billing. As before, DSL did worst, with downloads at 84 percent of touted speeds during peak times; cable hit 99 percent and fiber averaged 117 percent. All three technologies slightly beat their own advertised upload speeds.

ANALYSIS: Are the Boonies Getting Broadband?

That should be welcome news to customers tired of feeling lied to by Internet providers.

This study also reported that faster service plans accelerated the average tested connection from 10.6 million bits per second (Mbps) to 14.6 Mbps and approvingly cited the growing availability of 50 and even 100 Mbps packages.

But then the study repeats last year's observation that Web browsing doesn't feel swifter past 10 Mbps. One 1080p high-definition video stream can eat up 5 Mbps, but you'll need a lot of laptops on Netflix to max out 50 Mbps. When I sampled 100 Mbps and 1,000-Mbps (1 gigabit) fiber-optic connections from the Bay Area firm Sonic.net last winter, the rest of the Internet usually couldn't keep up.

DNEWS VIDEO: COOL JOBS: HACKER

Will or should subscribers pay triple-digit monthly fees for speed they can't use? (I'm a contented Fios customer, but I have zero interest in its $200-plus, 300-Mbps option.) The report neglects that point.

This roughly 12,000-word document drew from tests run by the U.K. research firm SamKnows in "thousands" of volunteers' homes during April. These volunteers subscribed to a mix of cable (Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Insight, Mediacom, TimeWarner), DSL (AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier, Qwest, Verizon, Windstream) and fiber (Frontier and Verizon).

I doubt many of these people can choose between those companies, especially if you rule out slower DSL.

Back in 2010, the FCC estimated that 78 percent of housing units were in areas with only two wired providers and 13 percent had only one. Since then, Verizon has not only failed to bring Fios into new markets but has commenced cozying up to Comcast: That New York firm's Verizon Wireless subsidiary and the Philadelphia cable giant now market each others' services.

HOWSTUFFWORKS: How Mobile Broadband Works

A few firms are trying to crack open the market: Sonic.net in the Bay Area, Chattanooga's municipally-owned power utility's fiber service, Google's Kansas City gigabit-fiber project (update: now taking pre-registrations, with 1 Gbps service going for $70 a month and 5 Mbps access free after a connection fee) and a venture called Gig.U that aims to offer wireless broadband around some universities. Newly-liberated wireless spectrum may further expand that choice.

But for now and for most of us, the Internet runs through our local phone or cable monopoly, and we risk such monopolistic abuses as slowed or capped access to particular sites or services.

In its intro, the FCC pats itself on the back for pushing these companies to provide faster service. I'm glad public scolding was so persuasive, because competition doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Credit: Rob Pegoraro/Discovery

---

Email:

---

Galaxy S III: Good Phone, Troubled Android

I thought the plus-sized screen on Samsung's new Galaxy S III would bother me, but I'm more concerned with what that company put on this 4.8-inch display.

NEWS: Is Your Cell Phone Spying on You?

This smartphone represents Samsung's most ambitious attempt yet to put its own stamp on Android. In pursuit of that goal, Samsung persuaded all four nationwide carriers to sell essentially the same phone: Sprint and T-Mobile shipped two weeks ago, AT&T's version arrives July 6 and Verizon Wireless's comes July 10.

DNEWS VIDEO: Gadgets and Gizmos

I reviewed a T-Mobile model loaned by Samsung--the priciest option, at $329.99 before a $50 rebate for new or renewing subscribers, while Sprint, AT&T and Verizon charge $199.99.

It will also be the only model in that bunch not to support LTE, since T-Mobile will use different frequencies for its upcoming service. But the "HSPA+" 3G upgrade T-Mobile sells as "4G" got close to LTE speeds on the GS III, with downloads ranging from 7.5 to 16.7 million bits per second.

REVIEW: Samsung Galaxy Note: Large, Not In Charge

In the bargain, this LTE-free phone also delivered some of the best standby battery life I've seen in an Android phone: after 24 hours idling, it had 83 percent of a charge. Its active life wasn't as good: Nonstop Web-radio playback with the screen lit almost full-time drained it after 5 6 hours and 37 minutes.

The 8-megapixel camera, like most on phones, can have trouble dealing with high-contrast shots but does good work otherwise -- helped by smart Samsung software that can automatically assemble a panoramic shot or take a portrait only when the subject smiles.

And yes, that high-definition screen doesn't make the phone feel too big -- unlike Samsung's uncomfortably large Galaxy Note.

But the GS III's system buttons feel wrong after trying multiple phones running last fall's Ice Cream Sandwich update. The back button is on the wrong side, and the reward for getting a real menu button back is having to hold down the home button to see what apps are open. And the back and menu buttons disappear until you touch them, which doesn't help the re-education process.

The departures from standard Android continue as you explore the GS III's software. Samsung's onscreen keyboard isn't as pushy as the horrible software on the Note but still auto-corrects even when you're backspacing over errors.

Pressing its home button twice invokes S Voice, a speech-recognition app that offers little of Siri's understanding and none of its wit. It heard me ask "What was the score of yesterday's Nationals game?" but had no answer; earlier, it responded to "What's the meaning of life?" with my agenda for the next few days.

A Kies Air app puts a dashboard for the phone on your computer's browser over a shared WiFi network, allowing you to read and answer text messages, upload or download photos and edit bookmarks. Neat idea, but the page didn't work in Safari and requires Oracle's often-insecure Java software for major functions.

Some of GS III's more fascinating (and most-advertised) features hide in the Settings app. You can, for instance, have the screen stay on if the front camera detects a face looking at it, then call a contact just by holding the phone to your head with that person's entry open. But with most of these options off by default, many users may never discover them.

All of Samsung's changes to Android give rise to larger worries. One is that shipping updates for future Android versions -- like the Jelly Bean release announced last week -- will be even harder. (T-Mobile spokeswoman Danielle Hopcus said the carrier will ship JB "in a timely manner.") The other is that Samsung increasingly sees Android as a platform on which to write its own interface.

Photo credit: Rob Pegoraro/Discovery

4G Hotspot Wants You To Share

Karma: $69.00

Sharing is a nice thing to do. Doing good to others will in turn bring good things upon you. That’s the concept behind Clearwire’s network hotspot, Karma, a Post-It-note-sized device set to launch later this year that allows people to share Wi-Fi and be rewarded.

The Karma works just like a regular pay-as-you-go hotspot that offers Internet access. For $14, you get a gigabyte of data that you can use anywhere -- a hotel, the park, a cafe -- as long as you're in Clearwire's network, which provides WiMax in 80 major cities. No need to worry about the data from your other service provider getting gobbled up while surfing. But you could get way more than the gigabyte, if other people sign onto your hotspot.

BLOG: The Science of Spilling Your Coffee

That's where the sharing comes in: once the hotspot is turned on, anyone within range can tap into your Karma hotspot. When a new user joins, they are taken to a personalized page about the owner of the hotspot. Strangers sign in with their Facebook account and get 100MB of free browsing, about enough to use the Internet for five hours. The $14 per gigabyte fee starts after the 100MB are used up. And for every user who does that, you get 100MB of free data credited to your account. The company calls this "social telecom."

HOWSTUFFWORKS: How WiMax Works

Robert Gaal, one of the founders says he and his created Karma because “We want to give everyone a mobile, 4G hotspot that lives in their pocket” adding, “Best of all, it works no matter what carrier or device you’re using.”

No, Robert. Best of all, there are no contracts, overage fees or subscriptions.

via The Verge

Credit: Karma

---

Email:

---

Apple's WWDC News: iOS Hits The Road

Apple is finally yanking the map out of Google's hands. That's the headline news of the keynote opening Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco: the replacement of the aging, increasingly-uncompetitive Google-based Maps app in the upcoming iOS 6 with an Apple-exclusive program.

But to me, the new maps app isn't the most important change revealed at WWDC (beyond those listed below, others included the arrival of a thin but expensive MacBook Pro laptop with an ultra-high-resolution Retina Display to match the new iPad and the ability to move a browsing session from one copy of Safari to another through Apple's iCloud Web service). It's more like the fifth-most important. Here's what tops it:

1. "Eyes Free" mode. When it ships sometime this fall, iOS 6 (a free upgrade for the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, the current iPod touch, the iPad 2 and the new iPad) will allow some drivers to request directions and hear and respond to text messages without even looking at the screens of their phones, much less touching them. They will need an upcoming vehicle from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes or Toyota with a "Siri button" on the wheel, but this still sets an important precedent. It's also a smarter response to distracted driving than trying to ban all phone use by drivers.

2. Facebook integration. The social network will be even more tightly integrated in iOS 6 than Twitter is in iOS 5, including automatically synchronizing Facebook events and contacts. (Many Android phones include a similar feature). The same integration is coming to Mountain Lion, a new version of OS X coming in July for $19.99. In the keynote, Apple bragged that Twitter's presence in iOS 5 has led to 47 percent of the photos shared on that service coming from iOS devices; imagine what this sort of Facebook tie-in might yield.

3. Passbook. This new iOS 6 app will collect electronic versions of shopper-loyalty cards, tickets and boarding passes, bringing up the right one automatically on an iPhone's lock screen when it detects it's at a relevant location. If enough vendors and merchants support this feature, this will insert Apple into the middle of an enormous number of transactions. And what if an upcoming version of the iPhone also supports mobile payments with an NFC chip? Let the rumor-mongering begin!

4. Notifications in Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion will copy a feature in iOS 5 (which in turn copied one from Android) by allowing background applications to request a user's attention in compact banners that scroll down from the top-right corner of the screen. (That, in turn, reminds me of a feature I appreciated in the Ubuntu version of Linux two years ago.) This should make Mountain Lion a less cluttered place for its users. It also seems a more sensible borrowing from Apple's mobile efforts than the interface elements Apple crudely transplanted into Lion, most of which I've since disabled.

5. Maps. The maps-and-directions program in iOS 6 looks uncommonly beautiful, with an eye-catching "flyover" mode that lets you soar over a rendered version of many major cities. On a more practical note, it will provide turn-by-turn directions that factor in traffic delays, include Yelp ratings of nearby establishments and let you book OpenTable restaurant reservations. But there's no word of an offline mode to match what Google says it's bringing to the Android version of Google Maps. And this app apparently won't offer walking, bicycling or transit directions, areas that I've found Google's app excels in. (Update, 6/13/2012: Grist's Philip Bump confirmed that it does provide walking navigation.) Apple says it will present third-party apps providing those services in Maps, but that's not as elegant. And elegance, as you may have heard, is kind of a big deal at Apple.

Images via Apple PR

---

Email:

---

Welcome, Mobile Device Overlords: DNews Nuggets

Welcome Our Mobile Device Overlords: There will be more mobile devices than people on Earth within five years, reports The Guardian. Tech group Ericsson, in its second report on the mobile market, said mobile subscriptions will rise to 9 billion in 2017 from 6.2 billion in early 2012. Global population will have reached 7.4 billion by then. The rise will be driven by mobile video, Internet surfing and a shift to more cloud storage of data.

Also by 2017, Ericsson said, 85 percent of the human race will live within range of a mobile signal, compared with half now, and 50 percent of us will have access to a super-fast 4G network.

Fun fact: About 40 percent of smartphone users use their phones before getting out of bed in the morning. Do you? (I do.) via The Guardian

GET MORE NUGGETS HERE!

---

Email:

---

The Next-iPhone Season Draws Near, So Read Wisely

It's that time of year: As the days heat up, so does irregularly informed speculation about Apple's next iPhone.

We do this every summer because new iPhones have arrived with clockwork regularity every June or July (up until the October arrival of the iPhone 4S last year), because Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next month provides a logical stage for the company to talk about its mobile ambitions (even if it doesn't) and because buyers who have been waiting for a new phone get curious.

ANALYSIS: iPhone Has Night Vision with Adapter

But the number of people hoping to break news about the next model -- or at least draw readers with posts about it -- vastly outnumbers the supply of informed sources. That results in a surplus of rumor stories that look silly or outright delusional once Apple unveils the real thing.

Bigger Screen

The most popular storyline this time around predicts a bigger screen, maybe a full 4 inches. Even a mere 3.999 inches would by virtue of being taller than the current 3.5-inch display fit into the same case as today's model.

DNEWS VIDEO: iPhone in Space Explained

That makes enough sense to me. The iPhone's screen looks a little dinky compared to competitors, even setting aside enormophones like Samsung's Galaxy Note. And finding a way to enlarge the iPhone's screen without requiring a larger device (a theory apparently first suggested by a listener to The Verge's podcast) would respect Apple's precedent of not shipping new mobile devices larger than their predecessors.

4G LTE Mobile Broadband

Adding 4G LTE mobile broadband should be equally obvious. The new iPad already has it and so do most new Android phones; more importantly, we're starting to see more efficient LTE chipsets that, coupled with Apple's usual talent for stretching out battery life, should permit faster wireless access without cutting into the iPhone's excellent runtime. Apple seems militantly opposed to shipping a new device with battery life inferior to its older models. Its competitors would do well to follow that example.

Free Maps App

A rebuilt, Google-free Maps app is not just logical but horribly overdue. Android phones not only do turn-by-turn navigation but offer bicycling directions and can even tell you when to get off the bus; Apple needs to fix this before it addresses anything else in the iPhone's iOS operating system.

ANALYSIS: The World's First iPhone Charger Case

But a fourth somewhat popular forecast, one calling for a smaller dock connector, makes zero sense to me. Why would Apple want to break most iPhone accessories shipped since day one? I would love to see the company join the rest of the computing universe and adopt the micro-USB standard, but that's not going to happen, for much the same reason.

What to Ignore

You can ignore entire categories of iPhone rumors because of their sourcing. Industry analysts have a horrible record of inaccuracy with Apple predictions. Overseas component manufacturers rarely know what they're talking about (Time's Harry McCracken found that 16 of 25 Apple-rumor stories published by DigiTimes, a common outlet for that sort of report, were "mostly or completely off-base.") And Apple patent filings rarely signify anything more than the addition of yet another weapon to its intellectual-property armory.

So if anybody cites that sort of evidence as proof that the next iPhone will support wireless charging or allow NFC payments... tell them to wait until next year.

Credit: Rob Pegoraro / Discovery

---

Email:

---

Verizon May Not Kill Unlimited Data Plans

UPDATE: Hold the phone! Verizon released a statement yesterday saying that it has been evaluating its data pricing for some time, but did not officially back up Shammo's comments below. They did offer that they would "share specific details of the plans and any related policy changes well in advance of their introduction."

Long-time Verizon subscribers felt smug about their unlimited data plan, waved it around in other people’s faces and bragged about it to their friends. That time is over.

Yesterday, at the J.P. Morgan Technology Media and Telecom conference, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo broke the news: Customers that were grandfathered in when the company got rid of their $30 per month unlimited 3G data plans will have to get on the "data share plan" bus.

BLOG: All Aboard the Shanghai Maglev Train!

Even though nothing official has been announced yet, analysts suggest that Verizon might be making good on their promise to have a “data share plan” introduced later this summer. A plan like this would allow people on one family plan to share certain amounts of data each month, the same way minutes are done now. It makes sense to level out the data playing field, as CNET points out, because having so many unlimited users clogs up the network, slowing it down for everyone.

I’m dealing with some internal conflict on this. I use Verizon and was one of those people grandfathered in on the unlimited data. I've always liked the freedom of using my phone to complete tasks online without worrying about usage. For months, I've backed data share plans because they tend to be a good deal for those of us in a household with more than one smartphone, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn how to share, or least remember to connect to WiFi.

via CNET

Credit: Najlah Feanny / Corbis

---

Email:

---