Who needs a cell phone carrier?

According to a study by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), one out of every four American families does not own a landline phone. Instead, 25 percent of American households are only using mobile phones. Further reinforcing the primacy of mobile devices, the study found that 15 percent of families that do own landlines receive all or almost all calls through cell phones.



The study was carried out between July and December of 2009 and included information from more than 21,000 American families.

We are now in 2011 and the percentage of households without landline might be already close to 40%.

We still have a landline (VoIP) but only for my mother in law. We seldom use it. Most of our calls are done via our cellphones.

But my sister is a proof that we don't need anymore even a cellphone carrier.

My sister and her family are right now visiting us from Germany. They stayed 5 days at our house and then went on a sightseeing tour through Florida. We were trying to buy a prepaid SIM card for her iphone 3, before they went south to Key West. But we had no luck, nobody had just a prepaid card (it was Sunday and ATT not open). They had either offers to charge prepaid cards or to buy a phone with minutes but not just a SIM card with no contract.
Eventually we gave up and they went on their trip, with the hope to find a card in a store on the way. This was the goal.

After three days she called me on my cellphone to tell me she does not need a card. Every hotel, they went to, had free wifi and she uses her Skype account to make calls either to other Skype members or to landlines. She called a couple of times Germany over Skype for just 1.9 euro cent (2.3 us cent) a minute.

She is not a geek, she is far over 40 and everything but computer savvy. However she is very good in saving money (she is an accountant) and she used to Skype for many years. Therefore (after she figured out that free wifi is almost everywhere) she looked in the iPhone app store and found Skype. Bingo.

She told me she downloaded as well an app which finds for her free wifi. Guess what, the app is called "free wifi finder". And it seems pretty good. It is an already 2 years in the app store but works great.



You even don't need to have wifi to find free wifi spots. You just need to download their DB to your iPhone or iPad.





My sister told me that they now scheduled their route around wifi hotspots like Panera Bread or McDonalds.

I was totally impressed, not that she does not really need a carrier to be still able to make phone calls, but how easy it was for her to do so.

Sure she is not all the time reachable, but do we really need to be? Landlines did not allow us to be reachable, when we have been not in our home.

She is absolute happy, because she is saving a lot of money. She made one call to Germany using roaming (before she had Skype on her phone). She paid $12 for three minutes. Can you imagine this?

Traveling with Skype can go even better. She could have her cell phone routed to her Skype account to receive free landline calls which are placed to her cellphone. Or she gets a Skype number that people could call her. And when she is in a wifi dead zone, which means Skype won't work, the calls would go to her voice mail. There is a price for this, but less than $10 a month.

She can do almost everything with Skype but no emergency calls. However the iPhone would let her make free emergency calls anyway.

My wife and I are paying $150 a month for two iPhones. This is for data, voice and SMS. We could save so much money, if we would have just 2 iPod touch.

Why do I need an expensive voice contract and data plan? When I am at home I have perfect fast wifi. I have wifi when I am in the office. I don't have wifi when I am driving my car to work and back. I don't have wifi when I meet friends to play golf. I don't have wifi when I am doing outside activities. But do I need to have a phone connection all the time? No.

Less than 10 years ago, we all were used calling somebody and this person might not answer the phone. When we have been lucky we got an answering machine.

Why do we need to be today 24/7 reachable? I don't think we need. But even if we don't need, we will in a few years again 24/7 available, because wifi will be everywhere.

Landlines lost the race against cell phones and I believe carriers will lose the race against wifi.

Maybe cell phones never go away (which I doubt), but at least we will see a dramatic drop in the costs in the next 24 months. Same as what happened with landlines.

In 2001 an average annual landline costs was around $700 in 2007 it was around $500, a drop of over 22%. On the other hand the annual cellular phone service did dribble from 2001 to 2007 to $600. In 2009 the average cell-phone user spent about $600 a year on mobile service, while families that talked, texted, or used other phone features more than average spent upward of $1,800. And the bigger the bill, the more get tapped for service taxes and surcharges, which tack on an average of 14.5 percent. Some people are saying that the current average cell phone bill is $81 per month ($972 a year).






And the cellular costs will even go more up. Maybe the voice part will go down but data 3G or 4G will get even more expensive. The average costs for data are Today $360 annually which I believe will go up around 40% Carriers are understanding that the consumer will use more data than voice minutes in the near future. But they understand as well that free wifi hotspots are a problem for them. Therefore they will try in the next year to get as much money as possible from their consumers before they (consumer) switch data off.
ATT and Verizon are so smart that they sell only certain smart phones with data plan. You are not able to get a voice only iPhone. I am not sure if this is even allowed. May e we should try to sue them.

My sister showed me that the non cell phone future is already presence.
And with the new iOS 5 is even SMS possible over wifi using iMessage.

I might try the test and will use for 4 weeks only an iPod touch as my phone.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Please follow me @schlotz69

Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Brooksville,United States

No iPad 3 this year and new iPhone in October

If the rumors are right then we will not get a new iPad this year but a new iPhone in October which can be preordered in late September.

Of the news is disappointing and the other is very good.

The iPad 3



I think it is really good news not to bring an iPad 3 this year. Rumors were out that the iPad 3 will be available in September, but honestly two iPads in one year would be too much. The price is much higher than a smart phone and buying two iPads in one year is not cheap. And as we know, always when a new version comes out, Apple is reducing the previous version in price. I would not find it cool to see after 6 months that my iPad is now 20% cheaper. One thing I always liked at Apple was the long product life time and price stability. A new iPad would have not been good. If Apple keeps a 12 months cycle then it is much more likely that the new product will be much better than the previous with more new features. The next iPad should be at least 2 mm thinner, should have retina display and maybe cable less charging. Apple does good not to offer a new iPad this year which has maybe just a faster processor. The time is not right yet. Maybe in a few years where not many new features can easily build in, or when it is not anymore possible to make the iPad lighter or thinner and we are all moved from notebook to iPads, then Apple can start to offer every 3 months an iPad with faster processor and bigger hard drive. And to be clear, that Apple can keep up such high demand is only possible if they can get a lot of media hype when a new version comes out. Reducing the cycle to 6 or less months will not guaranty media hypes. Compare it with DELL or all other computer manufactures, they bring every three month a new version of their products on the market, but really no press cares. We might find info in special review websites, but there is no prime time press coverage. When was it the last time that CBS reported a new DELL computer in the evening news? You can't answer? Me neither, but I know since 2007 every new iPhone or iPad was in the big news.
If the rumors are right, then I am happy to save money. However if an iPad 3 is coming out this year, then it has better a faster processor, better cameras and retina display or I would be disappointed by Apple.

I believe in two years you can order the iPad online with not only the ability to choose provider and memory but as well to choose the processor and color of the iPad (not only white and black). I can see that we can choose between four processors and up to 256GB with eight frame colors. This would be awesome. The smallest iPad for $499 and up to $1299 for the really fast quad core processor and 256 GB memory.

The iPhone 5




Rumors are out that the iPhone 5 release date will be later than previously expected, due to software that otherwise won’t be ready.

The news comes from AllThingsD, and is at odds with earlier reports that indicated that the device would actually be available earlier, during September. Next generation iPhone rumors are pouring in these days, as we’re getting closer to the launch of the device. That conflicts with a report from tech blog Gizmodo, which has passed along a supposed email from an AT&T employee claiming that employee vacation requests for late September have been denied. “Historically the only time they’ve done this was for an iPhone release,” reads that email. “So we’re looking at the last two weeks of September.” “I don’t know why AT&T’s calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it’s not for an iPhone launch,” one source said.

I tend to believe AllthingsD. But at the end is disappointing. Not only that we had to wait 18 months for a new iPhone but as well that the new iPhone will not have 4G.

Either way, Apple seems to be ready for a new iPhone. At least it looks like they are working on the redesign of the iPhone page. And accidentally showed a lot of text layered on each other.




The only selectable layer reads: “Only iPhone gives you one-tap access to the world’s largest collection of mobile apps.” Underneath the text layer, other fragments can be seen, such as “retina,” ostensibly from the usual slide that rotates on the iPhone page. Found by the iphone5newsblog.com

The question is, what will be different with the iPhone 5 than iPhone 4?. First of all it will hopefully have the A5 or A6 processor and a slightly bigger screen (4inch). The screen might not be wider but longer. The home button might be now integrated into the screen instead of being a button. Steve Jobs never liked buttons. Maybe it has (what I doubt) conducting charging like other phone built in. It might have an NFC chip and Stereo speakers. It is expected that the new iPhone can handle GSM and CDMA, to allow Apple to build only one iPhone. Most likely (as you can see on the image above) it might be thinner and not flat anymore. However I hope it does not change it's form factor, I am tired of buying all the time new accessories. Maybe (to be fancy) the iPhone has no buttons at all anymore and everything as the front, sides and back are touch screens. But this is very unlikely.
it seems that iPhone will not have yet 4G. Apple is testing LTE right now (rumors are saying) but if so, then there is no way it will have 4G in October. Apple would be done with testing in August when the first iPhone went onto the assembly line.
Not having 4G is the biggest disappointment for me. Because all other enhancement are ok but not really the hammer for selling. The only other reason besides 4G for me to switch to a new iPhone would be the processor. My iPhone 4 has already issues with simple games like Angry Birds. Many times the game slows down, of course one reason is the poor coding execution.
I have friends at ATT and Verizon and none of them does know what features the new iPhone will have and if screen or case will be different. And these guys are usually informed enough to know 2 months earlier what features their new phones in stock will have.

Regardless of features or form factor, the release day of the iPhone 5 will be exactly the same day iOS 5 comes out, there is no way that Apple would release one or the other first. Because iOS is perfectly build around the iPhone 5, this is for sure.

Regardless what the next iPhone 5 will be it is already a bit in China.
At least one online coupon website and more than 100 online shop owners on Taobao.com, China's biggest online auction website, have provided pre-order links online for the next generation of the iPhone (source china.org.cn)

Many Taobao sellers said they would start shipping the iPhone 5 between September 5 and September 7, which is around the time most industry insiders expect the smartphone to debut.
Most iPhone 5 for pre-order are being sold on Taobao from 4,000 yuan (US$625) to 7,000 yuan each.
Apple Inc, whose iPhone 4 and iPad tablets have wowed consumers around the world, declined to comment on the issue or the iPhone 5 release date.
Meituan, a Beijing-based Groupon-like website, announced that it will hold a lucky draw with the top prize being an iPhone 5. Users registering on the website or following the website on Sina Weibo will have the opportunity to win the iPhone 5, according to Meituan.

In July, Apple reported its China revenue grew six times in its fiscal third quarter ended on June 30 due to booming sales of iPhones and iPads.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Please follow me @schlotz69

Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Brooksville,United States

ATT, BestBuy, NYTimes and Facebook

ATT
My wife and i have together two iPhones with ATT. We chose the lowest minutes (750) and for each phone 200 text messages. We have this contract since 2 years and paid around $140 a month (we get a 18% discount). Last week we decided to take my mother in law cell phone on our contract. ATT is offering additional line for only $9.95 which is much less than she is paying now. My wife went to the ATT store explained them that she wants a simple phone with big buttons and of course no texting and no data plan for the new phone because her mother is over 70 and does only use the phone for calls. She told me that the sales guy at ATT was very nice. She told him as well that she would like to change our texting because the last few months we have been over and paid for each extra text message 10 cents. Which did total to $20 a month in average. Btw can anybody explain me why we need to pay twice when I send a message to my wife? Why does it count as sent and received?
He told her to pay $30 more to get unlimited family texting, she asked what it means and he said that for this extra everybody can send unlimited text.
This week I got the bill and almost a heart attack. The bill was almost $300. I looked through and figured out that a)they sold my mother in law a data plan which is $30 a month, b)we pay for her 200 text messages and c) The family texting is only for sending text message to family member on same contract. But my wife thought it is unlimited anywhere and started (like me) to text much more to friends. As a result, we were 1,000 text messages over, which is $100 extra. We felt screwed from the ATT guy, I am pretty sure he knew what he did. We are going to try to get our money back but I have not much hope.

BestBuy
This week was my birthday and I got a nice email from BestBuy. 10% off my next purchase.



I printed the coupon and went to the store. It was a perfect timing I just got for birthday the xbox 360 kinect and needed a second controller and some games.
The coupon is not really clear with what is included or not. But for sure not computers (like iPads) but it says game controllers and DVDs are included.
First thing, I asked a rep in the game department if the coupon is valid for games and controllers. He said yes as long it is not the xbox itself or reduced priced games. Great. He even mentioned if the cashier makes problems I should let him come to the cash register. I took 3 games and controller and went to the register. They guy scanned everything (I gave him as well my coupon) and I paid. When I looked at the receipt I saw that nothing got discounted. He apologized and said that games and controllers are not included. And that he can't do anything. So I asked that the other guy comes. He came and apologized as well and said that they can't do anything the register will not take any discounts with this coupon for the chosen items. I asked for the manager but same answer. I cancelled my transaction and guess what, the money was instantly out of my account but it takes up to two weeks till the money is back in my account. Is this the new trick from BestBuy to make money? Working two weeks with your customer money can give a lot of interests.

The NY Times
Last week was the latest NY Times update on the iPad and I am a little bit irritated. I had no crash since then. Are they finally able to build a stable app? it is loading much faster, updating much faster the articles and it does not crash at all. Now they only need to get the problems with the webcasts working and then it is finally a good app.

Facebook
I have for my blog now a Facebook fan page. But I need to get at least 25 likes to get a real URL. Please like my fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Kid-on-the-Blog/124605060959606.
I hope to get feedback an discussions going on the page. Things I should write or should not write and so on.

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Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Brooksville,United States

iCloud - no music streaming - so what?

When Steve Jobs presented the new iOS 5 and talked about the iCloud and how cool it will be, he mentioned that we can listen to our music through the cloud on any iOS device. In a side note he said that the song will start to download a few seconds before we can listen to and we are even able to listen to the last 30 or so songs when we are in the airplane and no wifi or 3G is available.



So how does this work?
Pretty simple, instead that Apple streams the music, the songs will be downloaded to your device. The iPhone will keep the last 30 songs in full on your device and the last 200 songs (or favorite songs) only 30 seconds. This saves memory and allows to start a song before it is downloaded. Therefore you will not be able to listen to your music through a web browser only through iTunes.

It is no streaming but is it bad? Actually not, this allows you to listen to music when your Internet connection is bad or the Internet connection is shortly interrupted.
I assume iOS 5 will reserve some of your free memory to do so, otherwise we are getting in trouble when our memory is full with games and other apps.

The sync through iCloud still works, even if the music is partly downloaded to your device. Apple will apply to music the same methodology like for all other apps and documents in the icloud.

But why is Apple not streaming the music?
There could be multiple reasons. First of all, because Apple does not stream the music, it does not need to pay such high fees to the record labels. Streaming would fall under other rules. Apple would be similar like a radio station. As an example the biggest problem for Rhapsody are the high fees to the record labels because of their streaming, surely Apple want to avoid this.

Second, Apple is taking something from ATT and Verizon away when iMessage starts. But gives something back with their music download.
I am assuming Apple had to make a deal with the phone service providers. The network is already today extremely heavy used since the iPhone went on the market. We all can remember how people were not able to use 3G in big cities like NY or LA because too many users were on 3G. There are right now around 100 million Apple 3G users, if everybody would stream music the network would break down. For streaming, the connection must be always good and fast otherwise the music does not play well. Doing it over downloading the speed is not so important, the provider can slow the download when the network is too much stressed. If they slow down steaming then listing would not make fun. And most of the people might listen only to 100 songs if most of them already to your phone downloaded and you listen to them multiple times then it does not use any streaming bandwidth.
Even only having the first 30 seconds of a song stored would save a lot of streaming, if you listen to the same 100 songs 10 times a month. This is 1000 x 30 seconds with 256kb quality is already 937.5 MB. This is half your data plan for a month.

Third, this allows Apple to give a better user experience. By not streaming Apple does not need to work on complex caching which would slow the iPhone down. Neither would listen to music slow browsing or other apps down. When I listen sometimes to rhapsody, I can tell that either my phone slows down or the music does not play well.
We should not forget we are not always on Wifi.
I have met people who are listing at least 3 hours to rhapsody over 3G through their iPhone on a daily basis and their data plan bill is always at least $50 more a month because of this.

Streaming is great, but if Apple's methodology is working out, then not streaming is better. It will need to be tested how much delay we will have till a song starts if not streamed but downloaded (when loading the first time)


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Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Brooksville,United States

The freedom of choice. ATT or Verizon.

One of the reasons why I came the USA was that this is country of opportunities and variety. But after six years I had to learn that this is not always true.

There is still a lot of opportunities, but you need either to know the right people or you need to have a lot of money to come your dream alive.
But this alone is another topic I could write a lot. This post is about the competition.

America was a dream for Germans. I am coming from a country where the state did own or control a lot of business. We had in time back not many private banks, and long ago telecommunications were owned by the German Telekom, owned by the government. I remember in 1994 to make a call overseas or even from door to door was expensive. 23 cent per 8 minutes for a local call and over $2 per minute for a call to the US. At this time (I lived in San Diego) a local call in the US was and a call to Germany less than 99 cent a minute.

But all changed in the last few years. Since then the German Telekom is no monopoly anymore, we can make call to the US for less than a cent a minute and sometimes free.

Calling from the US today to Germany is only free if you have Vonage or other VoIP. A normal landline costs still 9 cent and with a cellphone it costs 99 cent depending on the provider. American companies even charge you money for receiving calls or SMS. In Germany only the sender has to pay, if it is not a roaming call to a German number into another country.

Back to competition. In last few months Facebook did buy some smaller competitors, Google did buy in the last 8 years over 20 companies and Zynga (famous game platform) did buy 10 smaller game competitions.

There is not much competition going on in America. There is no real competition to google and bing, and any competition to FB gets more or less bought from FB. Or Facebook does offer same service like a competition with more financial strength.

Zynga is buying almost all possible competition to keep sole player. Word with friends creators could have been a good competition to Zynga but is now a part of the Zynga empire.

When you look at all potential interesting start ups then the main investors are mostly the paypal or AOL Netscape mafia and then some former google and Facebook billionaires.

At the end a few handful of people own the the American Internet.




Not to mention CPG or CE companies and American Car industry. All comes down to a few main players.

Now the same happens in the telecom business. ATT announced that they are going to buy the American part of T-Mobile for $39 Billion (Sprint thought they had already the deal with T-Mobile but their $25 Billion offer was not enough).

What does this mean for us consumers and Sprint?

ATT will be the biggest mobile carrier in the States, followed by Verizon and then long nothing till Sprint shows up. Sprint stock went already down with this announcement and Sprint might even vanish totally. A few years ago there was at least Nextel, ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and a few other small providers. Soon there are only two left. This means as a consumer we don't have a choice and no choice means higher prices.

America is a great country but if the acquisition and merger goes on, then we are in country with no real competition which will result in more unemployed people and higher prices.

ATT will close approx. 400 stores where ATT and T-Mobile have been too close together like in malls, which will leave at least 3000 people without work.

For existing ATT customers the merger might be better. The price stays stable and the coverage might be better because ATT can benefit from the newer T-Mobile technology. T-Mobile customers will get the iPhone but with a premium. T-Mobile offers much cheaper family packages and cheaper data plans. All this will go away.

And with this acquisition we will miss the cute T-mobile girl in the ads against ATT. Pretty sure somebody will make soon a parody on this.



T-Mobile Germany will use the money to invest in faster Internet and better technology, therefore it is at least a win for the German consumer.

I am a big supporter of open business and that everybody can buy everybody if they have the money, but only to a point when it is for a benefit for the consumer as well. If at the end the consumer is the biggest loser then the government should take action. And this deal will be not good for the consumer neither for thousands of employees. The US has already too many unemployed people, and these people can't afford to help the economy to grow. Our economy needs us consumers to buy the products to invest into the country. If we don't work and the prices are going up then we can't buy anything and the companies have to let go more people and less people can buy good and so on.

Please let me know if I see something wrong? As not a born American I might not understand the system.


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Original iPad prices are falling

Apple reduced the price of the original iPad by $100, as soon the iPad 2 came out.

Resellers like ATT and BestBuy are now reducing the prices of original iPads even more to get them out of their inventory.

ATT is offering the 64GB 3G now for only $529 instead of $829.



However this deal at ATT comes with a side effect. ATT is only selling the 3G versions and consumers are required to sign a two year contract with a minimum of $14.99 a month for data plan. This makes the 3G iPad $360 more expensive. When you buy it Apple you don't need to sign a contract and you can use the 3G as you go, paying month by month.

Bestbuy gives $100 off the iPad in addition to Apple discount but only as voucher, that you have to spend the money at BestBuy.

I have been yesterday at BestBuy and saw a lot of people buying the 16GB version of iPad 1. We are now able to get the smallest iPad under $300 which is in the same price range like netbooks. The people who bought the iPad yesterday at BestBuy have been lower income people who were not able before to get the iPad. When I asked them why they bought the iPad, I got two standard answers.
1. They always want to have one because they did hear a lot of it but it was too expensive.
2. My children have have friends with iPads and want to have one too, but we could not afford it.

Usually when consumers are buying new devices like phones or computers, they retire their older device. Some sell them or give them to friends but most just throw them away or don't use it anymore. They replace a phone when the two years contract is going to be renewed or after 3 years when the computer is now too old.

Different with iPads and iPhones. A lot of people buying after a year the newer version and are selling their old device or giving them to friends. Almost no iPad or iPhone does get retired.
This means basically all iPhone 3GS and iPads 1 are still in use, which gives Apple such a big advantage. Somehow they are able to convince users to get a new device every year and to keep the old devices so attractive that they are still in use till 3 years are reached.

If Apple is able to sell this year 20 million iPads, which they should be easily, then they are no doubt 35 million iPads in use end of the year.

Even if the competition can bring their tablets faster and cheaper out, I doubt that all of them combined will come close to 35 million.

The way Apple does product marketing and that their products are 3 years good, helps Apple to have at least a two year advantage to the competition.

We saw it with Smart Phones, it took two years till Android took over the market, but when we look how many people are using the Internet through smart phones then Apple is still leading. They did not sell as much iPhones as Android phone got sold last year, but as well here the old iPhones are mostly still in use and therefore we need to count them as well.

I am pretty sure shortly before we come into the third year of the iPad, Apple will invent a new category of products we don't think about yet or even think we need it, just to keep the momentum running. If not, then Apple might get in trouble to stay the biggest electronic company.

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ATT is attacking jailbroken iPhone owners

ATT is now attacking jailbroken iPhone users. By sending emails to consumers who are using tethering without paying the $20 extra a month to ATT for tethering.
It is easy for ATT to find out who is tethering without paying and sends to their subscribers emails like the one below:

Dear [Customer],

We’ve noticed your service plan may need updating.

Many AT&T customers use their smartphones as a broadband connection for other devices, like laptops, netbooks or other smartphones– a practice commonly known as tethering. Tethering can be an efficient way for our customers to enjoy the benefits of AT&T’s mobile broadband network and use more than one device to stay in touch with important people and information. To take advantage of this feature, we require that in addition to a data plan, you also have a tethering plan.

Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.

If you would like to continue tethering, please log into
your account online at Cell Phones and Cell Phone Plans – Wireless from AT&T, or call us
at 1-888-860-6789 Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. CST
or Saturday, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST, by March 27, 2011
to sign up for DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering.
Here are details on the plan:

DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering
• $45 per month
(this gives you 4GB in total, combining both your smartphone data plan for $25 and the tethering feature, $20)
• $10 per each additional GB thereafter, added automatically as needed
• Mobile Hotspot capabilities are included for compatible Smartphones

If we don’t hear from you, we’ll plan to automatically enroll you into DataPro 4GB afterMarch 27, 2011. The new plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan.

If you discontinue tethering, no changes to your current plan will be required.

It’s easy to track your usage throughout the month so there are no bill surprises. For example, we send you free text messages when you reach 65, 90, and 100 percent of your plan’s threshold. If you would like to monitor your account more closely, go towww.att.com/dataplans to learn about other ways to track your data usage.

As a reminder, our smartphone data plans also include unlimited usage of Wi-Fi at no additional charge. AT&T smartphone customers can use Wi-Fi at home or on-the-go at any one of our more than 23,000 U.S. hotspots already included in your data plan.

Thank you for bringing your account up to date. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve your mobile broadband needs.

Sincerely,

AT&T
I am even not sure if it is by law correct to charge for tethering. Surely it must be because all providers are charging for tethering extra. But I believe it is a scam.

Why do we need to pay twice? Paying for a data plan which is for most people not unlimited $25 a month and then paying another $20 for tethering a month.

I would understand if we have unlimited data plan to avoid "steeling" service from ATT to offer to friends free data connection. But the reality is that the plan is limited and therefore even if we tether it is not possible to steel. We pay for a certain service, and it is our right to do with the service what we want as long it is not harming anybody. Therefore it does not matter if I use the data on one ore multiple
devices. As soon the limit is reached I can't use anyway 3G. Therefore as a consumer I would be very careful when and with who I share my data plan.

I see tethering as another scam from carriers like the double paying for SMS or phone calls. Till today nobody could explain with sense, why somebody needs to pay for receiving a call or SMS, even if it is already paid through sender.

It is the last try for carriers to make a lot of money. They know that soon we will have wifi everywhere that users will not buy phones with data plans anymore. We will move to mobile devices with wifi as phones. This will kill the phone carriers and I honestly hope it will harm them, this should be our payback for the scam they do with us right now.

Paying for tethering is like going to the supermarket buying 5 apples. The cashier asks if you eat alone or with others. If you say with others you have to pay $2 more.


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iPhone coming soon as a different form factor?

We read a lot of rumors about a new cheaper iPhone and it makes sense.

Let us go back in time. The first iPod came in 23 October 2001.






It took almost 3 years till in June 2004 the iPod mini was introduced.






See wikipedia for all models.
The first iPhone was available in June 2007. This year is the third year of the iPhone and as we know usually Apple keeps release dates pretty consistent. If so, then we need to expect this year not only the iPhone 5 but as well the iPhone mini.

Smaller form factor, less memory.
The iPhone mini will be then available in 4 and 8 GB memory with much smaller screen than the iPhone or iPod touch to a smaller price break. Which means the iPhone mini will be available for free at all telecom providers. And for all girls, women and fashion guys, the iPhone mini will be available in 8 different colors, from yellow over pink to blue.

It might be that the iPhone mini (at the beginning) does not allow to install applications like the iPhone 2G. Like the iPod nano today. It has a iOS base but does not allow to install software.

I believe the iPhone 5 will be available in 32GB and 64GB like the iPod touch today, with a dual core processor a bigger back camera and but unlikely a 3D screen (just because others have it now like LG). But for sure the iPhone (both) will have a short distance transmitter to use the iPhone as a credit card.

Back to the iphone mini, after six months will be a software upgrade which will allow to install games and apps for the iPhone mini.

The iPhone mini will have Bluetooth, wifi and data plans but maybe no camera or only front camera to allow FaceTime.

I know this is all speculation but by just following Apple it would make sense. The only part which does not fit is that Apple is relying on telecom providers which might for Apple not a reason not to build a different form factor. For Apple it is not important to have number one OS sold but to be number one sold phone. Multiple form factors and offering a phone for all providers would raise the risk of too many problems and user complains, especially that usually the providers want their own special version of the OS.
Apple always prefers to be market leader for a specific product than to satisfy everybody. Apple believes consumers should buy what Apple offers and not that Apple has to offers something consumers are asking for. This is, was and will be the big advantage of Apple. All other hardware companies seem not to understand this methodology and therefore are offering every 3 months a new version of their phones and over 20 different phones (vice versa with PC and notebooks). As a result the products don't look as esthetic and are losing very fast in value.

Possible ideas of iPhone mini:



























I personally would like the iPod nano form factor as an iPhone nano. Would be awesome as a second phone.

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Please don't forget to visit my blog http://new-kid-on-the-blog.com or follow me on twitter schlotz69

The Daily - first magazine only on iPad

The daily was long in production and had some delay, but is now available in the app store for download. The daily costs $0.99 per week or $40 a year. The first 2 weeks are free - sponsored by Verizon. Which is an irony because 3G version of the iPad does only work with ATT.

The magazine is taking a lot advantage of the iPad OS. You can rotate the iPad to see different content.



If you rotate the super bowl article you will get movies to watch which you would not see if you don't rotate.

When loading the app it connects to the Internet and loads the latest articles. The main page is a carrousel where you can swipe through all articles which are grouped by news, gossip, Opinion, Arts & Life, Apps and Games and Sports. I am missing technology and international, but I guess I am not really the audience.




The app allows you to save articles if you want to read them to a later point.
The app has a lot of interactive features. There are polls within to see instantly results or even live twitter feeds about the super bowl game.







Even the weather is always up to date. Games like crossword and sudoko is in the app which counts the time how long you need to solve the crossword.

Overall there are many special effects and a lot of thoughts how to make the magazine more interactive. It is almost too much. The design is nice and easy to read.
However there is some weird things going on, sometimes you have to swipe from left to right to get to the next page, sometimes you swipe from top to down. I am still not clear when which approach is the correct one.

The app has a lot full page ads which are very interactive and informative and sometimes it is hard to tell if it is an ad or an article.

The amount of articles is limited, a lot of high resolution photos and videos, but not much to read. The best part is gossip. Apps and games are only featuring a few apps for the iPad or iPhone for direct download. I am not sure with the selection of the apps, it seems more likely that they are paid advertisement.

The app takes too long to load, especially if you have only 3G and no wifi. Unfortunately the app crashes often, at least twice a day for me.

The content is very load intensive, it takes sometimes 20 seconds to go from one page to another and the content page shows half of the time only a part. All videos are starting almost instantly when the page is finally loaded, but sometimes it takes up to 30 seconds till the video reaches best quality.

Not sure if i want to pay for it. It is great look and feel with a lot of cool features but the selection of articles is not my main interest.

It is no wonder that the daily has a low rating. People are rating it either as 5 stars or as 1 star. Either you like it or you don't. Many people are reporting to long load times and crashes, same problems I had.

I am disappointed that a magazine which had so much hype and support from Apple has such a low quality in terms of stability.

Please test it as long it is free, maybe you might like it.




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ATT fears losing customers and pushes with ads

Only a few days left till Verizon will offer the iPhone and ATT gets cold feet.
ATT is sending to all their iPhone customers an email to show that only ATT customers can surf the Internet during taking a call. So simple but true. Everybody at Verizon will miss the feature. To compensate this problem, Verizon is offering for a limited time unlimited data, but don't be fouled, it won't last forever. I lucky wise could grandfather my unlimited data plan ATT.

The email from ATT offers as well 25% off on iPhone accessories.



My Tip, regardless of discount, you should stay with ATT if most of your friends are with ATT, if not still stay with it. I love the rollover feature, this allows you to use the lowest minutes plan, keep a few months under and you have enough minutes left for the rest of the year. And reading email or receiving an image during call is awesome and often in use. If you play a game which gets info over data, you don't need to stop it to take the call.

The pricing at ATT is actually around $5 better and the 3G (when it works) is even faster than Verizon. I had no problems yet but I don't live in NY or LA.

And if everybody moves to Verizon then the network might go down as well. Verizon website was down when the iPhone was announced, same for ATT when iPhone 4 came out at ATT. I heard Verizon did learn a lot from ATT mistakes, but I assume not enough to know that there might be a lot of website traffic when the iPhone is announced, so why should they then learned more in terms of updating their towers?

And one slight very unimportant thing if you are not a traveller. Verizon iPhone will NOT work in Europe and most other countries besides US, Korea and 38 other countries. 75% of countries are on the GSM network, but 20% on CDMA, and guess what network Verizon is on?

it is good that there is a Second Provider. Because i can reduce my iPhone bill by $20 (already did) by telling ATT I would move to Verizon. I stayed and got discounted. I love open market.

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Is it a phone or a netbook?

Motorola once the the dominator with phones like the Razr lost the cool factor market lead against the iPhone and companies like HTC with Androids.

But Motorola is back. According to Motorola they have now the most powerful phone - the Atrix!!!

What is so special with the Atrix?
It is the first phone with a dual processor 2x1 gigahertz) which is twice then the current phones on the market have (1 single gigahertz processor).



But more impressive then the dual processor is the ability to dock the Atrix into a 11.6 inch screen with keyboard and a fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone (number code works as well in case your finger gets cut off)




According to some rumors the screen docking will be sold at Best Buy and not ATT (ATT will sell the Atrix phone). The prize will be at $150 for the 11.6 inch docking screen. The Atrix becomes a netbook that is just 14 millimeters thick when plugged into screen and keyboard — about the same as an iPhone with a bumper. The keyboard has its own power source and is rated at up to eight hours use. The netbook has USB slots so you can use an external drive.

Is this not what we all wanted? A phone we use to go to work or to make calls. But when we are in the office we dock it into a screen and use it as a notebook.

The idea is great but the Atrix is still a little away from this.

1. It s running on Android 2.2 and there are not many enterprise application available. But at least you can use google documents for Word and Excel.
2. When the phone is docked, the 11.6 inch screen only support right now chrome browser in full screen mode. All other applications are shown in a small side box on the screen which is the same size as the phone screen.

But after all it is the right direction where phones will go.
The Atrix is impressive in speed, and quality.
Some facts:
16GB internal memory and up to 32GB micro SD card makes it in total 48GB
5 Mega Pixel back camera and a VGA front facing Camera
960x540 screen resolution slightly lower than the iPhone 960x640 but it is not as clear and bright like the iPhone.
The Atrix will be on ATT 4G network
1 Gigabyte RAM which is more than other smart phones.
Basically the Atrix is similar like a netbook in terms of specs 18 months ago but much smaller.
Motorola is claiming that the phone will only use both processors when needed.

It is exciting to see the Atrix in action and it is pointing in the correct direction but it is still not a notebook replacement. We will see what Apple will show with their next iPhone release after iPhone 5.


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Location:Brooksville

Verizon is starting in February to sell iPhone, so what?

Everybody seems happy that now Verizon is selling the iPhone, because many people are complaining about ATT.
But here is my take on it.
ATT had and has issues with receptions but i believe Verizon will have some too. iPhone users are know to have much more heavy data usage than Android or blackberry users.
Verizon 3G is not as fast as ATT there will come complains too. But the biggest part we should not forget, Verizon is not able to deliver voice and data at the same time for 3G. The beauty of the iPhone with ATT is that you can surf the Internet during taking a call, and trust me this one of the best features ever. I had many situations where i needed to read an email somebody did send during call or i did use my iPhone for navigation and got a call in at the same time. Verizon said they are working on this issue but did not hear yet that they allow vocie and data.
Apple will sell much more iPhones and it was time that there is another provider, but it comes with some limitations which users will complain about. The Verizon costs are the same as at ATT, i would not recommend to switch from ATT to Verizon only because Verizon has now the iPhone.

The only reason to switch as an iphone user (in my opinion) is to get 4G access, but unfortunately the current iphone does not support 4G. Therefore we have to wait a few months till iphone 5 comes out.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Wireless plans to sell Apple Inc's iPhone for as low as $200 starting next month, putting the smart phone at the center of its high-stakes battle with AT&T Inc for wireless customers.


I do not believe that as many users are switching from ATT to Verizon and if they do so, they will lose speed and data/ voice usage.
Article from yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110111/wr_nm/us_verizon_iphone
Verizon's announcement on Tuesday that it would start selling the phone on February 10 puts an end to AT&T's three-year old status as the exclusive U.S. provider for the iPhone. Pre-orders start on February 3.

Verizon Wireless said the phone, a version of the Apple iPhone 4 designed to run on Verizon's network, will sell with a two-year agreement for $199.99 for the 16-gigabyte model or $299.99 for the 32-gigabyte model.

The prices are the same as what AT&T charges for those models.

Verizon, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, said the phone would be available at 2,000 of its stores around the country. It declined to comment on service price plans.

AT&T, which loses its cherished spot as the exclusive U.S. provider for iPhone, is expected to face its toughest year since 2004 as a result of the Verizon deal with Apple.

"The real question isn't how many iPhones Verizon will sell, but what AT&T does in response," said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, who attended the Verizon event.

Analysts, pointing to years of pent-up demand among Verizon Wireless customers, expect the company to sell 9 million to 13 million iPhones this year.
The new deal will hurt phone maker Motorola Mobility, which has made a comeback as the flagship phone vendor at Verizon Wireless for the past year.
Motorola phones run on Google Inc's Android software, which has become Apple's most formidable rival in cellphone technology.
Shares of Verizon were down 2 percent at $35.16, while AT&T shares were down 1.3 percent to $29.97. Shares of Apple slipped less than 1 percent to $341.50.

iPhone at Verizon but why not Sprint or T-Mobile?

Since a while are speculations that the iPhone will come to Verizon and ATT loses exclusivity here in the US.
Assuming this is correct (at this point fair to do so, everybody has no doubt), then i am wondering what is the whole deal behind. We know ATT paid a lot to be the only iPhone partner for the first 3 years.
But to get iPhone running on Verizon, Apple has to build a new iPhone which supports CDMA. T- mobile as an example has GSM like ATT, would it not easier to sell the iPhone at T-Mobile without the need to produce a new iPhone?
ATT and t-mobile are both on GSM and both using 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) for their 3G.
Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA for calls and 3GPP2 for data. This means Apple could already sell to t-mobile and when the Verizon iPhone is released they could sell it through Sprint.
I am, by no mean, a techie, and maybe to get 3G running on t-mobile, Apple would need to produce a new iPhone, and maybe the same if it should work on Sprint.
But if not, why only Verizon?
It looks very likely that Verizon did pay a big $$$ amount to block Sprint and T-Mobile. Or in nicer words: Verizon paid a premium which limits the rights to Verizon and ATT, for now.
Or maybe Apple is speculating to offer on Verizon only the 4G iPhone (which does not yet exist, the iPhone 4 is still only 3G). The good part is that Verizon will switch sometimes to 4G LTE like all other big providers, which means very good times for us consumers.

We will see soon. Maybe only ATT and Verizon will offer The iPhone in the coming year, maybe it is still only ATT or maybe all four providers will carry the iPhone.

What I don't understand is, that it is only 4 weeks left till Christmas and still no iPhone at Verizon. All and everybody it reporting that the number one and two Christmas gift will be the iPad and smartphone, and that 35% of Android users would switch to the iPhone if it would be not only at ATT.
Is Apple not losing a lot of money by waiting too long, should they not try to get the Christmas rush? Or can't Apple produce fast enough? We are still waiting on the white iPhone 4. Which is now over six months delayed.



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Please visit my blog http://www.new-kid-on-the-blog.com

How much should companies trust cloud services?

"Reporting from San Francisco — Google Inc. fired a software engineer for snooping on its users' private information, the Internet search giant confirmed Wednesday."
Source NYTimes September 16th

The 27-year-old employee, David Barksdale, allegedly accessed information about four teenagers he met through a Seattle technology group, according to gossip website Gawker, which reported the incident Tuesday.

A similar reported incident that did not involve minors also resulted in the dismissal of an engineer, said a Google employee who was not authorized to speak about the topic.

These are two incidents in a short time of period at google. Even if google does encrypt the stored emails, it is alarming how google engineers (and maybe lower level employees) can access gmail accounts and read these information, even if only the top managers can do this.

Google is pushing for google apps and their service to be used from companies. Start ups as well big companies are starting to use google mail, google docs etc like Valeo (automotive with 30.000 employees) or Rentokil (pest control, 35.000 employees).

I love the idea of google apps, it is a cheaper alternative to Microsoft bundles (MS Office, Sharepoint, MS Project), but i see at the same time big risks.

What happens when a company is using google apps and might be dangerous competition to Google, or might be on the Google buying list?

How do we know Google is not taking advantage of the ability to access the stored data?

How do we know that Google has not a key to access all of this?

Hold on, is this not a risk everywhere? Let us take ATT as an example, could not a certain group of employee access all phone bills? Maybe access stored voicemails? Yes they might could, but it would be still far less deep and detailed company information to begin with.

ATT and other companies don't have the expertise like Google in search. Google has the most brilliant engineers in search technology, they surely can come up with search algorithm to puzzle all pieces together to get a clear picture of a company.

I am a big fan of cloud computing but I would think twice which part i would take into the cloud, or what software i would use for my company as a SaaS solution.

Any data which is company critical and describes the most value besides employees should stay in the company. If a cloud is necessary for these applications than a cloud controlled by my company not 3rd party.

Would a retailer use Amazon for hosting their complete customer base and day by day financials in the cloud and using Amazon services for this? I don't think it would be a good idea. I trust Google and I trust Amazon as companies, but i can't trust thousands of people working with them.

I am really surprised that the two privacy incidents at Google was not big in the news. I had expected much more noise about this, especially the privacy breach came at an awkward time for Google. Federal regulators and lawmakers are weighing whether to make Internet privacy rules more stringent — a move opposed by Google and other Internet companies that argue the industry can regulate itself.

Here just two of many other privacy issues concerning Google:
Google is also under scrutiny in the U.S. and overseas for collecting personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks through its Street View service that takes panoramic pictures from vehicles. Google also raised the hackles of privacy watchdogs when it rolled out a social networking service called Buzz that is used in conjunction with users' Gmail accounts.


- Posted using My iPad

Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Spring Hill,United States

Perfect life for a geek

Before the iPad came out there were many speculations what the new Apple device will be. I did speculate too and said it will be a thin touch pad (slate) where you can slide your iPhone in to use. I thought this would be perfect. I have been wrong the iPad is better.
However an Israeli startup has made a modular mobile phone that can work on its own or slip into other electronic devices. But do we need it?
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/14/apple-manager-arrested/?source=yahoo_quote


Instead of the need to slide a device into another device, every device should have Internet connection without paying extra fees.

Here is my dream as a geek (I don't see me as a geek, but my friends).
Any camera, notebook, phone, touch pad etc has a build in 3G card or Wimax. Carriers like ATT and Verizon will have a new model. They will not charge multiple data plans. Just a one time fee for each device to set it up with your main account. It does not matter how many devices you have, you have one contract and one phone number.

A geek's day in 2013
During breakfast we tape a video of our son with our camera and send with the camera the video to Facebook.
When we arrive in the office, we put our smartphone into the docking station which is connected to two 21inch screens, mouse and keyboard. All apps are in the cloud and the smart phone serves as browser and file storage if necessary.
When we go to a meeting we take our iPad to take notes which are synced with the cloud. When we are back at the desk all things we did capture on the iPad are already on the phone.
On the way home we take the train and write our blog on the iPad.
The devices will be smart, that whenever 3G is weak it will switch to wifi, if both is not available all devices in proximity will build a private network, till one devices is found with enough Internet connection. Being not connected is almost not possible.
And nobody can hack into your devices because any transaction of a data package is encrypted with a code assigned to main account number. The only way to hack the data transfer would be direct on the account level which is guarded by the best security experts in the world.
When leaving the train, we take our car for the last mile home. As soon we start our car, the build in phone gets activated and all calls get routed to there.
We switched our GPS on which is projected to the windshield as annotated reality. We see the real street through the window with an overlay of information. An arrow in the middle of the screen as sign we have to go straight. With points of interests showing where we could have dinner.
Twitter and FB messages are running as audio through the Bose speaker system. We tweet a friend back by saying "tweet @Hans, the new car is awesome. I am here. Car position". The car computer translates "car position" into a link to google maps with a dot of my car position.
Finally at home, we have dinner and decided to go out for a beer. The only thing we take with us is our smart phone. House keys? No. The locks are connected to our phone with a security key. Wallet? No. The bar accepts phone payments. ID? No. The phone is your ID.
Having too much drinks, we decided to take the taxi. Arriving at home we type the tip amount onto our phone and shake it. The taxi is paid and a green light goes on at the driver seat as a sign that the payment worked.
At home we switch our lights on and off with our smart phone, the smart phone is the only remote for TV, radio, lights etc.
Browsing through channels we decided to watch a recorded movie which we did record remotely when we have been in the bar.
A few minutes in the movie we get a Facebook entry that there is a new cool device (shown on TV screen, with messages showing what our friends are watching).
We open on the TV the website of this cool device. It sounds promising, it is extremely social, can handle emotions and has better communication accessories than anything else. The storage memory seems to be almost endless. And everybody wants to have it. But the demand is so high that there is a big waiting list.
We believe this must be a hoax. They call it girl friend. They say it costs nothing but the invest of social interaction in a real life.

Note:
all devices And functions I talked in this blog are already more or less developed. Sone are still in testing some are on the market. It is just a matter to put them together.

Examples:
Dish network has an iPhone app which allows you to program your TVR
Verizon Fios shows tweeter and Facebook on your TV screen.
Annotated browser can be found on android and iPhone as download.
The US air force is using projected screens in their jet fighters
Schlage link logs can be monitored over the Internet.
Some European countries are allowing grocery shoppers to pay with their phone.



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Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Spring Hill,United States

iPhone prototype with CDMA is almost ready

Gruber is reporting that a prototype of an CDMA iPhone is supposedly ready for January launch. Unfortunate the CDMA version will not have GSM. Consumer need to make the decision to either go with ATT to have GSM or with Sprint or Verizon to get CDMA. If you are a traveler like me, you have to stick with ATT even if you would like to switch to Verizon. Most European countries do not support CDMA

The mythical Verizon iPhone could become reality this January, as Apple is reportedly finishing the prototype for a CDMA smartphone. The news comes from Daring Fireball's ever-scoopful John Gruber, who says that N92 is the codename for an engineering verification test unit of a Verizon-bound iPhone 4.

In the wake of the recent batch of countless Verizon iPhone rumors, Gruber, usually reliable for Apple-related scoops, speculates that the Cupertino company will unveil its CDMA version of the iPhone 4 at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, with sales starting at the end of the month.

Sources told Gruber that the Verizon iPhone prototype is not in production yet, but it is still at engineering verification testing (EVT) stage, a step before the device verification test (DVT) status (like the lost iPhone 4 prototype) -- the stage prior to mass production of the device. Gruber says the EVT stage is "right about where you'd think it would be if it were scheduled to go on sale in January."

Yes to CDMA, But Verizon-Only? Maybe

The CDMA version of the iPhone 4 is not necessarily Verizon-bound, Gruber says. In the U.S. it could be released on Sprint as well, and it would also work with Canadian CDMA carriers.

There are more than 164 million CDMA subscribers in North America, more than 36 million in Latin America, and more than 300 million in the Asia-Pacific region, according to figures from the CDMA Development Group. Instead of targeting only the U.S. Verizon subscribers, Apple could target the huge CDMA market in Asia, whereas Latin America's CDMA subscriber figures are not negligible either.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100812/tc_pcworld/applesverizoniphoneprototypeisreadyforjanuaryreportsays



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Location:W Laurel St,Tampa,United States

IPhone with Verizon does not break ATT contract

Yesterday I wrote about the possibility for Verizon to be earlier in the game than 2012. Here is another scenario why it is plausible.

http://www.wired.com reported in May 2010:
Apple’s supposedly confidential agreement with AT&T was not a secret after all: They struck a five-year exclusivity contract to carry the iPhone in 2007, an old court document reveals. Still, the validity of the contract remains a question.

An ongoing class action suit filed against Apple and AT&T in 2007 alleged that the two parties held a monopoly over the iPhone by locking consumers into a contract for an indefinite amount of time. However, Engadget’s Nilay Patel discovered that Apple filed a brief in October 2008 citing a USA Today article, which says Apple and AT&T struck a five-year agreement for the iPhone in 2007.

“AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years — an eternity in the go-go cellphone world,” the USA Today article dated May 23, 2007 wrote. “And Apple is barred for that time from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks.”

That would imply AT&T will be the exclusive U.S. carrier of the iPhone until 2012, which comes at odds with persistent rumors that Apple’s contract with AT&T expires this year and that a Verizon iPhone is due this fall.

However Apple usually does not sign any contracts with the ability to back out of them or to have a plan to sell to other carriers without breaking the contract.
A friend of mine who is working at Apple (but not in the iPhone department) mentioned to me that there are rumors, that the ATT contract does only apple to specific iPhones with 2G and 3G or 4G if ATT is able to provide 4G in major cities in 2011. ATT is planing to roll out 4G in 2011 a long-term evolution version (4G LTE), which could be fairly easy deployed, hence it is on the 700MHz frequency and would not require new towers. However the ATT net is already pretty packed and network reception complains are getting higher.
ATT has surely a lot work to do to get full coverage and keep customer happy.

The contract says (rumors) that if ATT can't keep up with technology demand, that Apple is allowed to offer new iPhone technology through other providers. In other words if Apple can't sell enough phones because ATT can't keep up then Verizon has a deal if Verizon can rollout till end of the year their 4G LTE (planned to cover 100 million users in 30 major cities http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=16738&news=Verizon+4G+LTE+Release+Date+Price).
ATT would be still sole provider for 3G iPhones but not for a 4G iPhone.
Hopefully the phone will have both CDMA and GSM for travelers like me.

The question is, do we need 4G? Sure video streaming is cool, face time is awesome, but it is very likely that no carrier will offer unlimited data, it will be tiered and expensive.
I don't care who my carrier is, as long my reception voice or data is good. I switch if i can have better service regardless if i pay more.

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Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Spring Hill,United States

iPhone for Verizon in 2011?

Macrumors.com blog is reporting that TechCrunch weighs in today with new claims that Apple has placed a large order for Qualcomm CDMA chips to be deployed in an iPhone production run scheduled for December. The claims come from a source reportedly familiar with the supply chain logistics for the CDMA-based chips that would be required for a Verizon iPhone.
Sources with knowledge of this entire situation have assured that Apple has submitted orders for millions of units of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone run due in December. This production run would likely be for a January launch, and I'd bet the phone is nearly 100% consistent with the current iPhone 4 (with a fixed insulator on the antenna).
This would be a year before the contract with ATT is expiring.
It is a rumor but it would make sense, if Apple wants to get more market share. But there are other countries with CDMA networks in the world, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, El Salvador, Guatemala, Israel, South Korea, Peru, Russia, Venezuela and Zambia.
My guess is that Apple will first offer CDMA in one of these countries because there is no long-term contract with GSM providers.
Establishing CDMA iPhone in Argentina and Chile will help to bring them as grey import to the US. Which allows Apple to switch faster to Verizon in the US as planned without losing their face to ATT.

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Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Spring Hill,United States

New iPhone 4.01 update another small marketing trick

Apple did release a few days ago their latest update for the iPhone. This update fixes the wrong reception algorithm to which did show too many bars on the iPhone.
I still believe the algorithm was used to convince the consumer the iPhone has a better reception than other phones.
Apple supposedly fixes this issue with the latest update. I had no time to run the update till yesterday. The first thing I noticed that Apple changed the graphic for the bars.
New:










With the old OS 4 you can see that the first bar is much shorter than in the new OS, the angle is slightly flatter and the bars are wider.
Old:










As result even one bar looks like a better reception than two bars in the old OS.
Now, when you compare the iPhone with an android EVO and both show 3 bars then the iPhone looks better because of the bigger first and second bar. However the EVO is showing up to 6 bars (iPhone only 5) which let the consumer think that with full reception the EVO is better than iPhone.
EVO:










It is really interesting how companies are playing with such small things like reception display and how much impact this could have. At least so much that I took time to compare.


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Please don't forget to visit my blog http://justhiswords.blogspot.com or follow me on twitter schlotz69

Please don't forget to visit my blog http://justhiswords.blogspot.com or follow me on twitter schlotz69

Location:Spinning Wheel Ln,Spring Hill,United States

Play the color blues and get free tethering with iphone 4

Handy Light, a newly-available flashlight app for the iPhone, isn’t a flashlight app at all—it’s a tethering utility that lets you share your phone’s Internet connection with your laptop.

But hurry, pretty clear Apple will take it from the app store. Edit: Which actually was done when I was writing my blog.
It’s not surprising that Handy Light managed to trick its way past Apple’s App Store reviewers. To enable tethering, you need to configure an ad-hoc wireless network on your Mac, connect the iPhone to it, tweak some network and proxy settings, launch the app, and then literally tap a coded sequence of flashlight colors. No one could possibly discover the hack by exploring; you need to read detailed step-by-step instructions to get it to work.

Of course, the app is gone and not live anymore, like the $10 NetShare app—which was axed by Apple nearly two years ago, the $1 Handy Light would share your Internet connection without AT&T making money.

Handy Light requires an iPhone running iOS 4.0 or later.

Full article:
http://appshopper.com/blog/2010/07/20/handy-light-tethering-app-camouflaged-as-flashlight/


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Location:Pinnacle Hills Pkwy,Rogers,United States