Category: Mobile (Page 16 of 65)

      Woman sues Google over walking directions

      June 1, 2010 /


      If you haven’t had your dose of the absurd for the day, get this – a California woman is suing Google for its Maps walking directions after being hit by a car, claiming the directions put her in unnecessary danger.

      It’s actually difficult for me to write this without employing a constant stream of expletives but I’ll try. Laura Rosenberg wanted to walk from one place to another in Utah, the quickest route for which was apparently Utah state route 224, a rural highway. Rosenberg then gets drilled by a car, which sucks, but her response is to sue the company that gave her one of many possible routes, routes that she has the power to modify with a simple drag/drop, for the injuries.

      The part that scares me, though, is that Google’s disclaimer – “Walking directions are in beta. Use caution — This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.” – is not visible on mobile phones. I’d like to trust a judge to tell Miss Rosenberg to consider a lobotomy alongside her reconstructive surgery, but if history tells us anything it’s that ridiculous litigation has a home in the good old US of A.

      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      google, Mobile, News

      Is Wi-Fi the answer to AT&T’s network problems

      May 25, 2010 /

      Times Sqaure.AT&T has a revolutionary and imaginative solution to its network congestion problems in places like NYC: Wi-Fi. Okay, so it’s neither revolutionary or imaginative, but it could actually work.

      AT&T plans to rollout free Wi-Fi across Times Square as a test bed for traffic offloading. The idea is that all those crazy people stomping around one of the most active city hubs will use the Wi-Fi network to upload pictures and Facebook posts and shoot off emails to mom and dad about their visit to the Big Apple, instead of relying on AT&T 3G. The result would be thousands of gigs of data traversing a much wider pipeline, giving you the chance to, I dunno, make a reliable phone call for a change.

      The only thing is, the network has to actually work. I can see this thing getting a solid rollout and then bombing, which will undoubtedly result in a big data push as angry users send their rants to Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress accounts, all back on the old 3G pipeline. Done right, though, this could be a huge boost to congested network performance. Remind me again, why did it take until 2010 for this become a reality?

      Photo from: Declan McCullagh

      Mobile, News

      The mobile world is Google’s oyster

      May 23, 2010 /

      Android.

      I’ve spent most of my tech reading time over the past few days reviewing the world’s reactions to Google I/O. Google announced some pretty cool stuff for Android, and the company clearly has Apple in its sights when it comes to market share. Even more interesting to me, though, was that the “Microsoft” didn’t seem to be on anyone’s mind. John Gruber put together a great read on the subject, so I’ll defer to him here.

      As Gruber sees it, Google is taking its gigantic, Android-shaped bite out of Microsoft’s pie, not Apple’s. Google is the licensed OS player because it licenses Android for free, not on a fee-per-unit basis. That says nothing of Microsoft’s crazy volume requirements to turn a profit. The company currently charges something between $8 and $12 per handset. When you hold just 6.8 percent of the world market share, that license fee is a joke.

      The volume game isn’t necessarily where you find the profits, either. Nokia sells a LOT more units than Apple, but Apple still makes a better profit. Microsoft is in an absolutely awful position to make a dent in the market. Hell, they still haven’t even launched a competitive platform. Microsoft was already too late when the iPhone launched three years ago. I have to thank John Gruber for this Ballmer quote about the iPhone launch, which I had never seen before:

      “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.”

      Well, Steve, I have bad news. The iPhone OS was just reported at 15.2 percent of the global market share. That 80 percent market share you were hoping for? Yeah, that’s never going to happen.

      Source: Daring Fireball

      Apple, google, microsoft, Mobile, News

      AT&T jacks their ETF, claims its unrelated to the next iPhone

      May 21, 2010 /

      AT&T spider.If you’re thinking about terminating your relationship with AT&T, do it fast. Come June 1, AT&T is raising its early termination fee from $175 to $325. According to the company, this has nothing to do with the impending release of the next iPhone.

      Right, guys. Right. That big influx of customers you’re sure to get, not to mention all of us idiots who will re-sub to get the next iPhone, we have no bearing on the decision to nearly double your ETF fees. If anything, consider this your warning if you haven’t made the switch yet. I love my iPhone – believe me, I do – but I loathe AT&T. If you think you might hate it enough to call it quits before your two years is up, be ready to part with $325.

      Oh, and in case you weren’t completely convinced this is about the iPhone, AT&T said it will be lowering the ETF for feature phones, down to $150 from $175. So just those new iPhone subs get screwed? Got it.

      Source: WSJ

      iPhone, Mobile, News

      The little ways tech changes our lives

      May 15, 2010 /

      iPhone in hand.There have been a million posts exactly like this one, posts detailing the most minute changes to our daily lives as the result of some new, ubiquitous technology, but I still get the same sense of wonderment when I encounter one myself. My younger sister graduated from undergrad today, replete with your stereotypically boring and overdrawn ceremony.

      One thing was different between this and my last graduation – my younger brother’s high school graduation – a few years back. I had an iPhone, and so did my older sister. My younger brother was sporting an iPod Touch. Within a few minutes we had fired up Words With Friends, a Scrabble app that’s playable with one other person over the air. From a few seats away I was able to dish out some domination while tuning out the muffled voice of an underwhelming speaker.

      There are plenty of people who would condemn my actions, my lack of interest in my sister’s momentous occasion. For me, though, there wasn’t much to see. My sister was across an auditorium full of a couple thousand kids. I would hear her name exactly once in the course of a two-hour ceremony, see her face just twice by the time it was over. Even she was willing to admit that the keynote speaker was beyond awful. Considering all of that, I don’t think it’s out of the question to seek a little entertainment.

      It wasn’t just me, either. Looking around the room I saw a swarm of handheld entertainment screens flickering with the owner’s stimulus of choice. There were students on the floor checking emails, sending pictures back and forth, playing games, hell some of them were making calls.

      Lifestyle, Mobile, News

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