TechNewsToday

Do You Really Need a 4G Phone Right Now?

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:18:59 +0100

4G is here! More Gs means more faster, right? And who doesn’t want their phone to be faster? Except—maybe you don’t need 4G today.

What are you gonna do with all those Gs?

Today’s 4G networks (leaving the semantic niggles of 4G aside) offer real-world downstream speeds that range from 3-6Mbps on Sprint’s WiMax, 3-6Mbps on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network, and Verizon’s promised 5-12Mbps. That’s roughly 2x-6x faster than the 3G speeds we were seeing a year ago; it’s closer to DSL-level speeds in lots of cities across the US.

When I peer over people’s shoulders to see what they’re looking on their smartphone (I’m very nosy) half the time they’re looking at Facebook. This is what a typical procession of usage looks like to me: Facebook; email; Twitter; web browser; Twitter (again); maps.

Is 4G going to make that stuff—the majority of what people do on their smartphones—that much faster?

Consider how fast your phone feels on Wi-Fi, which is the kind of experience 4G is promising, compared to how it runs out in the open. The comparatively skimpy CPUs in tablets and phones are as much the bottleneck behind web pages taking longer to load on a phone than they do on your laptop. In the end, with 4G, you’re talking about shaving seconds, not radically redefining the experience of posting on somebody’s wall.

The applications that’ll really tap 4G powers on phones and tablets are still in their infancy. (Aside from downloading apps.) The most obvious application right now is video, because apps have historically been designed to minimize how much bandwidth you’re eating on a mobile device, rather than treat it as freely as it would on your home network. There aren’t very many killer high-bandwidth, non-video applications in the pipeline. Audio streaming could sound better, perhaps. So could voice calls, except 4G networks are data-only for now. Torrenting won’t fly. The problem with online gaming is latency—and these networks still have a fair amount of it. Multi-megapixel image uploads to Flickr will be faster, though.

So there’s video streaming! Netflix, arguably the premiere video streaming service now, is only on a handful of phones. Video chat: Still a messy minefield. Video uploads to services like YouTube. It’s good 4G networks are rolling out now, to get developers thinking about how they’ll use these 4G networks. But unless you’re an aggro-nerd—tethering, watching tons of video over the air and doing who knows what else—you’re probably safe waiting out jumping on the 4G bandwagon for another generation of more powerful phones and the really amazing apps that’ll come with them, tapping higher power CPUs and that fat, over-the-air pipe.

On the flip side, given that carriers are increasingly moving to payment models where you pay for every byte that you use—Verizon’s got a 5GB cap for its LTE network, just as stingy as its 3G data cap—maybe all of those high bandwidth applications still won’t look all that attractive. The 2GB and 5GB caps from AT&T and Verizon seem roomy enough now, but what about in a year or two?

Holy coverage, Batman

The thing about new networks is that they take time to roll out. So, coverage is limited or spotty, no matter whose 4G network you’re on. Verizon’s rolling LTE out to just 38 markets this year. Sprint’s is available in just 68 markets—New York just got it, and SF won’t see it until Dec. 28. T-Mobile covers 75 cities with its HSPA+ network. And even inside of “covered” cities, coverage is rarely a snuggly blanket of smooth coverage, in our experience, at least compared to established 3G networks. When are you gonna get 4G in your town?

It’s a battery killer

Know what happens when you flip the 4G switch on an Evo to start sucking in lots of data? Your battery rapidly sputters to death, like a man swallowing too many McRibs at once. [Delicious citation needed. –Ed.] And that’s going to an issue in general: The faster your phone is pulling in data with these modems, the faster your battery’s going to die. Of course, if you’ve ever flipped your phone from 3G to EDGE to save battery life, you already knew that.

So, in the end, 4G sounds shiny and awesome and fast, but it’s worth a gut check before you buy a phone just ‘cause it has 4G tacked on the end of it: Do you really need all those Gs?

You probably don’t.

[Seen here]

Ruckus Smart Antennas May Be Key to Nationwide Wi-Fi

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:15:49 +0100

I’m standing in the middle of the some of the most congested airwaves on Earth, and I’m watching Russell Crowe in 1080p like I just don’t care.

If you opened your laptop to log on to the net here, you’d find a list of 160 different Wi-Fi access points to choose from. Normally, mere mortals would have a hard time even checking their e-mail in that cacophony.

But I’m walking away from the conference-room router I’m locked onto, past Ruckus Wireless’s finance and administration cubicles toward the corner office of CEO Selina Lo. I forge on, past the marketing department, the product management team and the guy in the engineering department who has decorated his cube with successive generations of Ruckus’ Wi-Fi router motherboards.

Crowe keeps fighting without a jitter.

It’s not until I’m nearly 200 feet away, approaching the radiation-proof Faraday cages used for testing Ruckus’ newest Wi-Fi antenna designs, that Crowe falters.

I’m toting a standard 15-inch laptop and watching Crowe seeking bloody Gladiator vengeance. It’s an HD video encoded in MPEG-2 — a luxurious experience that requires a steady 19 Mbps pipe (give or take) to play without stuttering.

It’s an impressive performance, and I’m not talking about Crowe’s fighting skills. The fact that Ruckus’ Wi-Fi antenna can hang on to a fat pipe even in the midst of a huge number of competing Wi-Fi signals is amazing. Just ask Steve Jobs, who watched a recent presentation grind to a halt earlier this year due to an excess of hogging wireless signals.

The secret is the patented antenna designs, the brainchild of the company’s co-founders Bill Kish and Victor Shtrom.

Traditional Wi-Fi routers use omnidirectional antennas, such as the little sticks on the back of Netgear and Linksys routers, which spill out signals equally in all directions.

Ruckus’ routers have 19 separate antennas, arranged in a circle on the motherboard, which constantly triangulate the receiver’s location. The router then sends out signals on the antennas that have the best path to a given laptop.

The algorithm driving the process finds the best path hundreds of times per second, because even just moving a laptop a bit or having a co-worker stand near you means that there’s likely a better combination to avoid the interference. Even more impressive? The router figures out individual optimal paths for each device connecting to the router.

Think of the router as housing up to 150 little people with cheerleader megaphones, tracking where you move and making sure you can hear them by aiming their cones at your ears. The idea is that Ruckus solves the problem that confronted Steve Jobs when he was trying to demo the iPhone 4 and had to ask the audience to turn off their 3G-to-Wi-Fi hotspots because he couldn’t lock his phone in on the Wi-Fi signal.

A collection of Ruckus Wi-Fi equipment, including the C-shaped ones that are used to connect TVs to AT&T

This isn’t about putting your little home wireless network on steroids. Ruckus tried this by licensing its technology to Netgear, only to end up in a patent dispute. Now if you want a Ruckus antenna in your house, the only real option is to get a specially made one after subscribing to AT&T’s U-Verse broadband TV service, so that you can avoid having to string CAT5 cable through your drywall to your flatscreen TV.

Ruckus is after bigger and more lucrative game: public Wi-Fi networks that actually work.

Truly useful and widespread Wi-Fi networks could be used by big telecom providers to create fast and seamless Wi-Fi networks in cities, so that your mobile device — whether that’s your smartphone or the latest tablet computer — can hop on and off Wi-Fi for bursts of speed.

While that sounds like a nice bonus, in a future where mobile data hunger will be voracious, it might the key to making cellular networks actually work in dense urban areas by relieving the growing burden on 3G networks.

It’s already happening, though mostly outside the United States. Allen Wong is the product director of PCCW, one of Hong Kong’s biggest telecoms, which has 8,000 Wi-Fi spots — including train stations, cafes and convenience stores — in the densely packed city to augment its 3G and landline broadband services.

About half of PCCW’s hotspots use Wireless N antennas from Ruckus (Wi-Fi N’s advantages over 802.11G are numerous, including fatter data channels and support for multicast of video.) The coverage is so wide that subscribers can step off the plane and immediately connect to Wi-Fi, then enter the train station to take the subway to the city, and never lose coverage until they exit the station.

“These [antennas] can actually bend a lot,” Wong said. “Wi-Fi is pretty much line of sight, but Ruckus’ bending is quite a lot, particularly in areas where there is a lot of human absorption and obstacles, like Hong Kong cafes where there are always lots of people queuing. Ruckus behaves very well.”

Wi-Fi is a natural complement to 3G, according to Wong. The two slices of the radio spectrum behave very differently. 3G signals travel far and wide but are relative lightweights when it comes to throughput. Wi-Fi doesn’t travel far but it’s capable of super high speed.

Ruckus has the backing of Sequoia Capital (one of Silicon Valley’s august VC firms), and CEO Selina Lo has already built and sold an $8 billion business. But it’s still a small player in the communications-hardware business. It competes for contracts with telecoms and other businesses against such giants as Motorola and Cisco. Ruckus says it’s like going up against IBM in the 1980s, where the safe choice for potential is to go with the established players.

To think that the world’s cities will be blanketed in actually useful Wi-Fi, one has to confront the fact that most muni Wi-Fi projects — the object of so much tech hype just a few short years ago — failed. They failed in part because the Wi-Fi technology was still in its adolescence but also because most cities didn’t plan very well.

“It was poor design decisions,” says Arthur Giftakis, VP of engineering for Towerstream, a wireless provider that serves New York City businesses using line-of-sight antennas on skyscrapers like the Empire State and MetLife buildings. Municipalities chronically underestimate the number of antennas needed and overestimate how far signals travel. They also depend on thin connections to the internet backbone, according to Giftakis.

A cubicle wall collection of Ruckus Wireless antenna designs. Photo: Ryan Singel/Wired.com

“The demand for 3G and 4G bandwidth is insatiable,” Giftakis said. “Data usage will grow 200 to 300 times what it is today, and the existing networks are going to have to use all the available technology to satisfy customer needs.

Towerstream signed on to use Ruckus Wireless wireless equipment this fall, and is building out a 200-access-point, outdoor Wi-Fi network in New York City, with repeaters and antennas on key buildings around the Big Apple.

Its thinking isn’t hard to figure out.

If Towerstream can build out a robust Wi-Fi network in New York by getting good spots on good buildings with good antennas and a good connection to the wired internet, it would be sitting in the catbird’s seat.

So when the nation’s telcos realize that disparate hotspots in Starbucks or McDonalds connected to thin DSL lines aren’t going to help them offload data or entice their competitor’s customers to trade up for a better network, Towerstream will be there to rent its networks to multiple carriers.

In fact, PCCW’s Wong says data offload isn’t the right reason to build out a comprehensive Wi-Fi network.

The right reason is that it’s what customers want and they are willing to pay for it, so long as it’s easy.

On PCCW’s Hong Kong network, the credentials for logging onto the company’s Wi-Fi network are built into Android devices and iOS (the capability is native to iOS, and PCCW wrote its own Android app), so users automatically connect without having to ever type in a password, once they’ve signed up.

“Our competition doesn’t have this, and we can then subsidize devices less and less,” Wong said. “We never subsidize Android and iPhones.”

“Customers are being educated that this is part of your life,” Wong said. “The proliferation of Wi-Fi devices and Wi-Fi means it has become part of daily life. People are standing close to the phone booth (where PCCW has installed Wi-Fi hotspots) while they are waiting for someone.”

“People are not using that to watch Youtube,” Wong said. “People are watching their own downloaded videos and then stream it from home to these devices, particularly TV dramas. If you just have 3G, it’s just not going to support that.”

As for the United States?

Well, you can see signs if you look closely. Train stations and planes are now increasingly linked up. T-Mobile has found a way to extend its mobile coverage by allowing its subscribers to use a technology called UMA to let subscribers make phone calls over any Wi-Fi spot anywhere in the world as if they were using a T-Mobile cell tower. Cable operators are adding Wi-Fi networks that include Ruckus-created hot spots that hang on cable lines and tap right into the cable network (speaking DOCSIS to the line and Wi-Fi to customers.)

And while Ruckus has largely been focused on landing enterprise customers — making Wi-Fi networks that actually work inside buildings or on big campuses — it announced in October that it’s ready for the telcos, with a series of “carrier-grade” products including outdoor mesh antennas, point-to-point radio backhaul and a systemwide Wi-Fi management console.

As for proof it works, an Indian ISP called Tikona Digital Networks is using the equipment to build the world’s largest outdoor residential and commercial Wi-Fi mesh network. The firm has 30,000 Ruckus mesh antennas in the largest cities in India, including Bombay, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

It’s enough to make you wish you lived in a developing country, instead of the United States where the telecoms seem more interested in keeping profits up and data usage capped … at the cost of building a next-generation communication network.

[Seen here]

The Best Smartphone on Every Platform

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 01:09:33 +0100

iOS: iPhone 4 (32GB)

Duh. While you can pick up an iPhone 3GS on the cheap, there’s no reason to. Saving $100, you lose out on the iPhone 4’s frankly a-mazing screen, killer camera, faster speed (for better gaming) and FaceTime. When it comes to iOS, there is only one choice: iPhone 4. And really you should get the 32GB model. Why?

Because apps, HD video and 5-megapixel photos can take a lot of space, and you’re gonna be stuck with this thing for two years.

Android: Epic 4G and HTC Incredible

Picking the perfect Android phone is a little trickier. But that’s part of the beauty of the platform: There are so damn many of them. Do you want a keyboard? A smaller phone or a bigger screen? A clean Google experience, or one that’s been tweaked and molded by phone makers and carriers?

So we’re going to cheat and pick two: The Epic 4G on Sprint, because it’s got a massive keyboard—for people who have to have a keyboard—WiMax powers, an awesome camera, sweet Super AMOLED screen, and Samsung’s skin is pretty tolerable for most people.

For the second, we’ve still got a soft spot for the HTC Incredible on Verizon. It’s a little more pocketable than most of the hulking Android phones coming out right now, it’s got a solid (though not stellar) camera, and HTC’s is one of the better Android skinjobs out there. Plus, it’s just $150—a little cheaper than most of the other top-end Android phones at the moment.

Windows Phone 7: Samsung Focus

The early Windows Phone 7 phones are a fairly generic bunch, but the phone that stands out the most is the Samsung Focus. The Super AMOLED screen really shines with Windows Phone’s technicolor interface, the camera’s decent and it seems to do the best job of getting out of the way of the OS, which is the real star of the show.

BlackBerry: BlackBerry Bold 9780

BlackBerry’s touchscreen experience is still haphazard at best, so if you’re going to go BlackBerry you should stick with the phones they’re best at: the traditional BlackBerry. The Bold 9780 is their top-of-the-line BlackBerry, a refreshed version of the existing Bold, with a better camera, more RAM and most importantly, BlackBerry OS 6, so you’ll be able to run all of the new apps coming out written for it.

Palm WebOS: Palm Pre 2

Getting your hands on a Pre 2 isn’t as easy as walking into the AT&T store and walking out, but you can buy it for just $450 unlocked—which is fairly cheap as far as unlocked phones go. Bonus: You’re not tied to an two-year contract. (That said, it’s coming to Verizon soonish for those in need of commitment.) The Pre 2’s not a revolutionary lunge from the original Pre, but the tweaks add up to a better phone: a faster 1GHz processor, redesigned case materials and longer battery life. Oh, and it comes with webOS 2.0 right out of the gate, which is a none-too-shabby update to webOS, with fancier multitasking and a bunch of other new features.

[Seen here]

Cowon’s Pocket-Sized Media-Player: 1080p, Specs-Free 3D

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:08:36 +0100

The Cowon 3D is, as you may have worked out, a 3D-capable personal media player (PMP). But who cares? Much more interesting is that this palm-sized, 4.8-inch movie-player has full 1080p video-output via HDMI, making it a rather compelling device for the movie-buff.

Here are the rest of the specs: That little screen has a resolution of 800 x 480, and as well as movies you can browse the web via Wi-Fi, read ebooks, play music and watch photo slideshows. The battery will juice the player for 10-hours-worth of movies, and you can pick between 32GB and 64GB versions.

OK, so 3D isn’t so lame, and the Cowon 3D has one neat trick: you done’t need glasses to watch it, although watching a 3D movie on that little screen seems to be such a headache-inducing a feature that it should be sponsored by the aspirin industry.

Finally, the price. When it goes on sale in Korea in December, the 3D will be KRW500,000 and 590,000 ($430 and $510) for 32GB and 64GB. At those prices, and with that tiny screen, you’d better really want the 1080p output, or the gimmicky 3D.

Cowon 3D press release [Cowon]
Cowon 3D product page [Cowon]

[Seen here]

An iPhone 4 Amplifier That Doesn't Need Any Electricity

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:48:08 +0100

The Phonofone III, like the Phonofone II before it, pumps tunes from your iPhone at 60dB without having to be plugged in to any outlet. Yup. It’s just big beautiful acoustic amplification.

While its predecessor was nearly $900, Science+Sons is offering first batch of redesigned Phonofone IIIs for only about $200 bucks. That’s not extravagantly expensive! And the new Phonofone isn’t as extravagantly designed as the earlier place-your-iPod-earbuds-in-a-special-listening-chamber version, either—just pop your iPhone 4 in the dock and the ceramic horn will amplify the audio coming out of your iPhone’s speaker roughly 4 times, or about 60dB. Simple!

For more infos visit the Store

[Seen here]

iPhone 4 Meets Chrome

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:31:44 +0100

That bumper you’ve got? It’s looking a little… stale. A little saggy. What your iPhone 4 really deserves? A smooth and shiny chrome slider case. It’s purty.

The 1mm thick cases don’t add much bulk at all, and while I might have some long-term concerns about fingerprint smudges and scratches and scrapes, I’m going to set them aside for now. Because for as long as those black and silver chrome cases are in pristine condition, they’re some of of the sexiest iPhone 4 outfits I’ve seen. As for the gold and purple (yes, purple) versions, well, you’ll certainly be making a statement.

Available for $35 from Incase, they also include a stand for horizontal viewing and all-important shock absorption. But honestly: did I mention they’re shiny?

Seen at: http://gizmodo.com/5701343/dress-your-iphone-4-in-gleaming-chrome

Where's the keyboard? - Acer's Iconic Keyboard

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:20:00 +0100

When Acer announced a slate of new devices at a New York press conference last week, the overarching message was simple — keyboards are as done as a Thanksgiving turkey. The company introduced an array of tablets, most of which were running Android, with sizes ranging from five- to ten-inches each. That’s almost as broad a lineup as Archos, which has dipped down to what most would consider digital audio player turf with a three-inch tablet (tablette?) and a precursor to what is sure to be a merciless barrage of tablets on the slate for CES. The single manifestation of a physical QWERTY text entry device was a keyboard dock designed for a 10-inch tablet running Windows.

But as much as Acer’s tablet lineup seems poised to flounder in the coming sea of similarity, its Iconia laptop stood out, eschewing a keyboard for a second 14-inch touchscreen to match the main display. Unlike the dual 14-inch hinged Kno device discussed in columns prior, this one is clearly designed to be used in a landscape orientation, and unlike the 7-inch Toshiba Libretto, the Iconia is not being positioned as some kind of limited-edition experiment. If anything, Acer signaled that it would be the first in a series of products that would unfold over the next several years.

PC companies have no doubt been inspired to try dual-screen designs featuring soft keyboards given the way consumers have embraced smartphones and the iPad, which make a similar tradeoff. Indeed, with potentially even more real estate to spare in the case of the Iconia, they can theoretically provide an even better virtual keyboard experience than those devices. Indeed, after taking a moment to orient their fingers, touch typists may find themselves very much at home row with the Iconia’s software keyboard. Nonetheless, there are a few obstacles that issues that could make the fate of the Iconia less than a touching story.

Lack of need. Particularly on smartphones, it has become clear that the extended real estate offered by removing the keyboard from the front of the device can make a big difference in tasks such as Web surfing and watching videos. In contrast, while users of multiple-monitor setups regularly express how such a setup aids their productivity (particularly for multitasking), it isn’t yet clear if those benefits extend to monitors that are flat against a surface, particularly for a productivity device such as the PC. On one hand, a lower display could be exploited for mixing software where a QWERTY keyboard could be replaced by a musical one. On the other hand, Acer demonstrated a media player application where the lower screen was mostly wasted by large media control buttons.

While users of multi-monitor setups regularly express how they aid productivity, it isn’t yet clear if those benefits extend to monitors that are flat against a surface.

Lack of flexibility. The Iconia’s upper display can open 180 degrees, and lay flat, parallel with the lower display, but more could be done. For example, it could extend to an even greater angle, folding over itself like many traditional tablet PCs or the dual-screened Kno. Or it could stand in an inverted V position with the screens facing out, enabling it to be a more flexible tool for conference room presentations or the ultimate device for digital versions of games like Battleship and Guess Who. But that leads to a third issue.

Lack of software. The iPad’s game console-like platform uniformity has encouraged third parties to take advantage of such hardware features as the accelerometer. However, while Acer, like Toshiba before it, is introducing useful enhancements to Windows for the dual-screen clamshell design, how many third-party developers will be prepared to exploit such a form factor?

In addition, while an initial typing experience on the Iconia seems favorable, that doesn’t mean that the Iconia will be suitable for cranking out volumes of text longer than even a finely crafted Engadget column. Dual-screen notebooks could have the best payoff for smaller notebooks – so small that they are not expected to do heavy textual looking, and where the extra screen real estate could really come in handy (taking a cue from smartphones).

Ideally, though, they would not be so small as to unduly compromise the typing experience. The Libretto W105, like the original Asus Eee PC, has a 7-inch main display, and the physical keyboard on that Eee was very cramped. The optimal screen size such a product is probably 10 inches, which is also about the minimum size required for a full-sized physical keyboard. Not coincidentally, it has also become the go-to screen size for netbooks.

For now, the Libretto W105 may be too small for a great virtual typing experience and the Iconia dimensions generally befit a PC we rely on for more. The industry will continue to pursue Baby Bear’s dual-screen laptop to accommodate the would-be digital Goldilocks wandering in from the forest of indistinguishable notebooks, and see how far she gets without any keys — if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor.

Found at http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/28/switched-on-acers-iconic-keyboard/