Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 135 of 168)

      AT&T Denies MMS Delay, Tethering Estimates

      July 11, 2009 /

      iPhone with some MMS.Around the release of iPhone OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, rumors started to fly concerning MMS and tethering, both of which would get 3.0 support. The word was AT&T was unnecessarily delaying MMS, maybe as far as September, and that tethering would run AT&T customers as much as $55/month.

      According to AT&T, none of this is true. They recently sent an email to Wired.com to set the record straight. A spokesman for the company has confirmed charges for tethering (booooo!) though he wasn’t willing to mention specific numbers or a live date for the service. As they’ve stated before, the email maintains MMS for “later this summer.”

      By the by, the first day of autumn isn’t until September 22, giving plenty of room for “later this summer” and “September” to mean the same thing. As for tethering, we’re probably looking at a $15 upcharge, which is consistent with other tethering/data plans. Seems egregious on top of an unlimited data plan, but I don’t have much use for tethering. My apologies to those of you that do.

      iPhone, Mobile

      Amazon Wants to Ease Your Cell Shopping Pains

      July 10, 2009 /

      Amazone Wireless store.Have you tried shopping for a cell phone recently? How bout shopping for one without a clue what you’d like? Not particularly tech-savvy? Don’t know what’s on the market?

      I found myself in this exact situation about a month ago. I was all set to pick up a new 3GS, but that meant my girlfriend needed a new phone too. Luckily, she had me, as its kind of my job to be up to date on this stuff. Even with my help, which she grudgingly accepted, it was difficult to find the right phone. Again, luckily, we knew we were shopping AT&T. Without that limitation, though, the possibilities are near endless.

      Amazon hopes to change all of that with Amazon Wireless, a new service aimed at centralizing cell phones and service plans, all in one rebate-free package.

      Personally, I love this idea. Amazon isn’t always my favorite place to shop online, but I almost always use their reviews as a source of input before purchasing a new product. Their wireless store, which is currently in beta, puts all of that information in one place, making it easy for gearheads and average consumers alike to find what they’re after.

      For now, the store is pretty limited. It only has 130 phones, and only from AT&T and Verizon. I can only imagine that number will grow, though, as other carriers jump on board for the potential benefits inside. Head over and check the site out for yourself.

      Mobile, News

      Eric Schmidt to Reconsider His Role on Apple’s Board

      July 10, 2009 /

      Eric Schmidt.After unveiling Chrome OS this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he will consider recusing himself from Apple’s board. The Chrome OS launch adds another dimension to the areas in which Apple and Google compete with one another.

      In speaking to reporters at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, Schmidt said, “I’ll talk to the Apple people. At the moment, there’s no issue.” Schmidt has already been taking leave from any Apple board meeting in which the iPhone was a hot topic. Obviously Google competes directly with the iPhone with their Android operating system.

      Under federal law, no person can sit on the two board of two companies if it decreases competition between them. Schmidt’s been trying to avoid these kind of questions by opting out of certain meetings, but you kinda have to wonder what goes on behind closed doors. It’s not any kind of surprise that the FTC is curious, too.

      Like Schmidt said, though, for now there’s nothing to worry about. I guess we’ll have to see what happens in the coming months for both Apple and Google.

      Apple, Computers, iPhone, News

      Kindle Drops to $299

      July 9, 2009 /

      The Kindle 2.In case you missed it yesterday, Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle to $299. Rumor has it the price drop comes as a result of increased competition from other manufacturers eager to enter the market.

      Ross Rubin, a consumer analyst at NPD group had some disparaging remarks. “While it is a significant drop both in terms of the overall percentage of the price as well as getting under the $300 barrier, it is still not going to be enough to break it out of its niche,” he said. For the most part I agree. Getting under $300 probably means a few more people will pick up the device, but the price of the media hasn’t changed, and neither have the DRM issues, so it’s tough to see the Kindle really “take off” as a result of the cut.

      Amazon will be offering consumers a $60 credit if they purchased a Kindle in the last 30 days. The Kindle DX, which sports a larger screen, remains at the $489 price point. For now, anyway.

      Digital Media, News

      Acer Unveils T91 Tablet

      July 9, 2009 /

      Acer's T91 tablet PC.As Acer continues to climb the ranks in the world’s top hardware manufacturers (they’re number three for the people keeping track at home) they’re adding plenty of new products to their lineup, including this tablet PC. Dubbed the T91, early reports suggested the tablet might run as much as $700. Today we found out, though, that the T91 will sell for just $500.

      The real unfortunate news is that this is the single-touch version running Windows XP, not that sexy new multi-touch running Windows 7. And if this one is $500, I hate to think what the multi-touch version is going to cost. Probably more than I care to spend on a netbook.

      As for specs, $500 will get you the standard netbook fare. The T91 comes with an Atom Z520 processor clocked at 1.33Ghz, a 16GB SSD, a gig of ram and Bluetooth and 802.11n for wireless. Not a bad bundle, just hard to justify when a multi-touch can be far off.

      Computers

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