Verizon Apple iPhone 4 Slower than ATandT iPhone: Report

Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4s perform differently in different scenarios, says a new report. In motion, AT&T's was faster, but stationary the opposite was true.

The Verizon iPhone 4 is slower than its AT&T counterpart, according to Metrico, a company that tests mobile device performance. This bit of bad news for the long-awaited device follows reports that it additionally suffers from antenna signal loss when held in the "death grip" — a phrase coined after the release of the AT&T iPhone 4, which was found to drop reception bars when in held in a specific, but mostly natural, way.

According to the Metrico report released March 7, differences it discovered between the Verizon iPhone 4, which is based on CDMA technology, and the GSM-based AT&T iPhone 4 depend on how the smartphone is being used.

"The AT&T iPhone experienced double the mean data download speed of the Verizon iPhone," the firm said in a statement, " but the mean load time for an average Web page was about the same on both devices."

Metrico also found differences when the devices were being used in motion — in a car, say. "The AT&T iPhone successfully completed around 20 percent more data download sessions than the Verizon iPhone," reported the firm. "The results were opposite when the iPhones were stationary; the Verizon iPhone was more consistent uploading data when stationary in comparison to the AT&T iPhone, with a 10 percent success rate."

The findings echo those of early reviewers. The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg, in a Feb. 3 review, reported that he performed "scores of speed tests" on the two iPhones, which he mostly used in Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland and, for a day, Chicago. "Despite a few Verizon victories here and there, AT&T's network averaged 46 percent faster at download speeds and 24 percent faster at upload speeds," wrote Mossberg. The differences were most notable, he found, when the phones were being asked to perform labor-intensive tasks, such as downloading large numbers of e-mails.

"AT&T's speeds varied more while Verizon's were more consistent, but overall, AT&T was more satisfying at cellular data," Mossberg concluded.

David Pogue's experience, reviewing the iPhones for The New York Times, was one that has made so many folks look forward to the iPhone on the Verizon network. He drove around San Francisco — an Achilles' heel for AT&T iPhone coverage — dialing a landline number. Over the course of 30 minutes, the AT&T iPHone dropped the call four times, while Verizon's held it continuously.

Metrico additionally compared the iPhones to other devices on their respective networks. It found the AT&T iPhone to rank near the top on download and upload speeds, "with comparable performance to the Sony Ericsson Xperia, the LG Quantum and the HTC Surround." The Verizon iPhone, however, ranked "below average in data download speed relative to other Verizon smartphones like the HTC Incredible."

The Smartphone Mobile Experience evaluation testing that the phones underwent offer carriers and original equipment manufacturers information with which they can establish a scientifically derived user-experience baseline, Richard McNally, Metrico vice president, said in the statement. Metrico's performance evaluation included performing more than 10,000 Web page downloads, more than 2,000 upload tests and placing nearly 4,000 voice calls.

"The mobile industry is competing on performance, and anecdotal performance information isn't good enough to drive management and marketing decisions," McNally added.

The Verizon iPhone 4 has inspired a number of organizations and Web sites to run performance tests of their own. Consumer Reports found that having a finger on various parts of the phone can cause a "meaningful decline in performance," and so was unable to recommend it. Tech site iLounge held the Verizon iPhone in various bear-hugging ways and noticed a "dramatic, dramatic slowdown" in upload speeds. Analysis group AnandTech, in its testing, found the death-grip issue to have been addressed.

"Getting a case still makes sense," the site reported, "but using the phone without one is no longer something that will dramatically affect phone usability.”

link search :eweek.com

Five Ways The Verizon iPhone Will Change The Mobile Landscape

It has been a litany akin to prayer in certain circles: “Everything will be better when Verizon gets the iPhone. I’ll buy it then.” But what will a Verizon iPhone really change? Let’s think this through.

First, expect iPhone sales to surpass Droid sales for a brief period and then level off. My friend (a former Hell’s Angel) told me how a Verizon rep sold his niece a Droid X explaining that it was as good as the iPhone. After seeing my her uncle’s iPhone, however, she was gravely disappointed and repeated the litany to herself, albeit with some trepidation as the rumor of iPhone’s apparition on Verizon has been a long time coming. This time, however, we’re almost certain that the prayer will come true. Before you Droid-heads start flaming, accept that, at least until Honeycomb, when Verizon has the iPhone its Droid sales will dip.

Second, expect nothing to change in terms of iPhone development over the next few years. I agree with Gruber in his belief that Verizon will sell a CDMA iPhone and not an LTE model. The GSM and CDMA models will be upgraded concurrently but there is no reason for Apple to release a “better” model on either platform (even LTE) until all carriers converge to LTE.

Next, expect a banner year for Verizon. Last year was more of a pennant year as subscribers flocked to AT&T and their profits tumbled. That will not happen in 2011.

Fourth, expect Apple make this announcement quietly and without fanfare. I doubt His Steve-ness will even show up to the event on Tuesday, if that is, in fact, what the announcement is about. Maybe he’ll appear on a screen, benevolently beaming down on the faithful who masochistically stuck with the phone on AT&T and who will be gravely disappointed when they can no longer roam internationally. But considering the iPod Touch has become a Wi-Fi phone that works everywhere, we’re looking at the reduction of carrier control in mobile anyway, so who cares?

Now, for the bad news. The Verizon iPhone won’t be much better than the AT&T iPhone when it comes to reception and data transmission – at least not yet. Even anecdotally, as evidenced by this Ars survey, most users use a little more than 200MB of data a month with outliers hitting over 1GB of data. That’s 200MB per iPhone and there are a total of about 11 million AT&T iPhones floating around out there. According to AppleInsider, Verizon sold an estimated 4.4 million Droids. Verizon has 92 million subscribers while AT&T has 90 million. So 11 million AT&T subscribers are slamming the network while 4 million Droid-ites are tapping Verizon’s network gently. So what happens, then, when the iPhone effect hits Verizon, especially on Verizon’s older, slower CDMA network? Verizon will experience the exact issue that has been plaguing AT&T: the curse of success.

Contrary to popular belief, AT&T isn’t hobbling iPhone calls and data service out of malice or ignorance. It just hard to serve that much data to that many people. Last Monday in Las Vegas, for example, I had perfect iPhone reception. Add 130,000 people – all but a few of them iPhone users – to the network during CES and you’ve got a mess. I couldn’t make a call or get an email all week. What’s going to happen when Verizon iPhones roll into the same town? Even if you split iPhones evenly (and you won’t, because international users will drive up the GSM-based iPhone count) you’re still overloading both networks. What’s Verizon going to do? Send the Can You Hear Me Now guy to install new cells? Mark my words – Verizon’s vaunted connectivity and coverage will plummet. Heck, if I were a conspiracy theorist I’d note that Verizon’s website no longer touts its coverage to avoid potential class action lawsuits.

The Verizon iPhone won’t be a solution to the many problems folks in urban areas like San Francisco and Manhattan are experiencing. In fact, it just spreads the pain to two carriers.

However, it’s nice to know someone is listening, even a few years after the fact. Steve is truly good and kind.

Resource : techcruch

Apple Sells One Million iPads

On Friday shoppers waited on line outside the 14th Street Apple store in Manhattan to buy the new iPad 3G.
Apple on Monday announced that it had sold one million iPads as of Friday last week, a faster sales pace than the iPhone.
Apple also said users had downloaded more than 12 million applications from the iTunes app store and that 1.5 million books have been downloaded through Apple’s iBookstore. The iBookstore sells books only for the iPad, but Apple said it expected to sell books for the iPhone this year.
Apple also said there were now 5,000 iPad-specific apps available for the device. The top-selling applications in the App Store have remained relatively unchanged since the device went on sale last month. Apple’s own productivity suite including Pages, Numbers and Keynote, all analogous to Microsoft’s Office products, remain the top grossing apps along with the games Pinball, Real Racing HD and Scrabble.
Steve Jobs said in a statement that the milestone of one million devices is “half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone.” He also said that “demand continues to exceed supply.” Earlier this month, Apple announced in a press release that it was going to “postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May.”
Over the weekend the iPad 3G went on sale. There were reports over the weekend that the 3G model quickly sold out as shoppers waited in line to buy the latest offering.

[Note uniqe content here]

Apple starts taking iPad orders

Apple began taking pre-orders for its much-hyped iPad tablet computer Friday, some three weeks before the sleek new device goes on sale in the United States.
The first version to be made available on April 3 is a wi-fi-only iPad that will sell for 499 dollars. Later in the month, Apple will release versions that feature the ability to connect to the internet over cellphone networks.
The level of pre-orders for the iPad should provide strong indications of whether it will mirror the popularity of the iPhone, which came to redefine and dominate the smartphone market following its launch in 2007.
Apple is not expected to release information about the level of pre-orders, but the order line was so busy early Friday that callers were placed on hold for some 10 minutes before being connected to sales staff.
“I ordered an iPad anticipating new ways to experience education,” student Kevin Paffrath told PCWorld.com. “I am hoping to use the iPad to take advantage of new innovations such as e-textbooks, magazines, word processing and presentations.”

Books overtake games as most numerous iPhone apps

In what is predicted to be a pivotal year for ebooks, with next month's iPad launch, the number of books available as iPhone apps now exceeds the number of games

The electronic book passed another milestone this month, with the number of books available on the iTunes App Store passing the number of games for the first time. According to data released earlier this month by the mobile phone advertising company Mobclix, there are more than 27,000 books now available as apps. Games lag behind, with 25,400 published this year, followed by entertainment, education and travel.
It's a trend that seems to be gathering momentum, with the number of book apps outnumbering games almost two to one over the past month. Next month's launch of the iPad, Apple's new tablet reader, alongside a dedicated book store, is set to accelerate the shift to electronic reading still further.
"The iPhone has always been perceived as a games-centric device, said Canongate's digital editor, Dan Franklin, "so the idea that books are outranking games is very exciting."
Franklin, who moved into digital publishing a year ago, said that his first thought on getting the job was, "When are Apple going to do something?" because "they have form". A move from Apple into the ebook market will "bring new people to reading like they have brought new people to music with the iTunes store", he added.
"It's a very exciting time," agreed Penguin's digital publisher, Jeremy Ettinghausen. "It's very exciting that people are using iPhones to read books."
"I travel on the tube every day," he continued, "and you do see people reading books, reading newspapers and playing games. As publishers we need to be on the things that people are using during that distraction time, that commuter time."
But he argued for caution in focusing on the number of titles being published, stressing that "it's very easy to produce books for the iPhone".
"It's interesting to see what's selling," he said, "rather than what's being submitted – quite a lot of the books are free downloads, whereas the games tend to be paid for. I'm more interested in what's going out than what's going in."
A significant proportion of these apps are free downloads of out-of-copyright books, but according to Franklin the recent surge in book apps can also be attributed to improvements in Apple's approval processes.
"Initially books weren't seen as being top of the pile," Franklin explained, but with the launch of the iBookstore imminent, "Apple are now taking more notice of book submissions".
"With the iPad due next month, and Google looking like they're going to launch their Google Editions, this is the key year for electronic books," he said.

Apple admits using child labour

At least eleven 15 year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories that supply Apple.
The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China.
Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.
Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.
Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou.
A spokesman for Wintek said that "almost all" of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital. Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly.
Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone.
Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factory's security staff had beaten him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building.
Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts.
It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an "inhumane and militant" management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconn's management were not available for comment.
In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple's rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week.
The technology company's own guidelines are already in breach of China's widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers.
Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly.
"When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work," Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory.
Only 65 per cent of the factories were paying their staff the correct wages and benefits, and Apple found 24 factories where workers had not even been paid China's minimum wage of around 800 yuan (Pounds76) a month.
Meanwhile, only 61 per cent of Apple's suppliers were following regulations to prevent injuries in the workplace and a mere 57 per cent had the correct environmental permits to operate.
The high environmental cost of Apple's products was revealed when three factories were discovered to be shipping hazardous waste to unqualified disposal companies.
Apple said it had required the factories to "perform immediate inspections of their wastewater discharge systems" and hire an independent environmental consultant to prevent future violations.
However, Apple has not stopped using the factories.
In 2008, Apple found that a total of 25 child workers had been employed to build iPods, iPhones and its range of computers.

Cheaper iPhone with new controls may come this summer

Apple will be bringing out lower-cost iPhones this June with new, gesture-based controls, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty.
In a note to investors, Huberty said research suggests the biggest barrier to iPhone entry for many consumers is the price of hardware, followed by the cost of the service plan. This was the case in emerging markets like China and India, as well as in the United States. I find this incredibly strange because the $200 or $300 you plop down initially is nothing compared to the amount you’re paying over the length of the contract. This idea has been kicking around for a while and some thought we would see the mythical iPhone Nano last summer. Instead, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) introduced the iPhone 3GS and made the 3G version $99. The bargain iPhone 3G hasn’t hurt sales of the 3GS, as Apple recently said the demand for the latest iPhone has outstripped supply.
“We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology,” she wrote in a new note to investors Friday,” Huberty said.
This is where things get interesting because Apple does have a lot of juice now and could possibly get AT&T (NYSE: T) to lower the costs of data plans for iPhone users. It was recently able to get AT&T to offer somewhat reasonable, contract-less data plans for the iPad. AT&T would be crazy to give away revenue so easily but if this move keeps the iPhone away from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) for a few more years, you have to do it. As for the gesture stuff, we’ve seen rumblings to suggest that it will use the camera for a contact-less way of controlling your iPhone. If done right, this could enable you to control your phone without blocking your view or leaving smudges on that pretty screen. Steve Jobs seems pretty excited about the next iPhone, are you?

HTC launches three new phones

The Taiwanese handset maker, which has thrown its weight behind the Google Android operating system, unveiled two more devices based on the platform, as well as a compact device running the Windows mobile operating system.
The HTC Legend is similar in shape to another HTC device, the Hero, but the Legend is made from a single piece of aluminium, without any joins. It's the same kind of manufacturing process used by Apple to make its unibody Mac computers. The Legend has a 3.2in AMOLED screen, which produces pin-sharp images and bright, crisp colours, and combines a touch-screen interface with an optical trackpad for easier menu navigation.

Another Android-based device, the HTC Desire, is almost identical to Google's Nexus One handset, and boasts a 3.7in AMOLED screen. It's powered by a slick 1GHz Snapdragon processor, which means it can switch between programs, applications and tasks more quickly, and supports Flash, the technical standard that makes it possible to view certain animated webpages and embedded videos when surfing the mobile web.
In addition, HTC also showed off the HD Mini, a smaller version of the popular, Windows-powered HD2. John Wang, chief marketing officer at HTC, said the device had exactly the same look and feel as the HD2, but in a more compact form factor. It can also act as a "wireless hotspot", allowing other devices, such as laptops, to share its 3G data connection to get online.
HTC said it had also improved its Sense user interface, which sits on top of the Android operating system and collates contacts in to one central address book, allowing users to contact them in a variety of ways - such as by email, text message or through Facebook - with a single click.
The new version of Sense adds the Friend Stream widget to the handset, which aggregates a user's social communication, from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, in to a single flow of updates. Users can also group contacts depending on whether they are close friends, family or work colleagues, allowing separate out real-time information across their wider social circle.
“At its essence, the mobile phone is the most personal item you have in your possession," said Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC. "HTC Sense was created to magnify your ability to create and define your own unique mobile experience."
The latest version of Sense will be available on the HTC Legend and HTC Desire, and will be offered as a free software update to existing HTC Hero users. The Legend and the HD Mini will be available in April, with the Desire going on sale in the summer.

Apple, iPad and handheld gaming

Now that Apple has taken the wraps of its upcoming iPad tablet computer, the weeks of speculation that led up to its announcement have given way to endless chatter about the pros and cons of Steve Jobs’ new offspring.
Like a lot of geeks, we’re disappointed that the iPad won’t be the laptop replacement we’d been hoping for when the first models hit stores this March, ranging in price from $499 US to over $800. Critics have taken digs at the device by calling it an overgrown iPod Touch, and for better or for worse, that’s pretty accurate.
But one of the great things about the iPod Touch and the iPhone is they’ve emerged as bona fide handheld gaming platforms, with thousands of games available for download via the iTunes App Store. Not all the games are winners, but there are lots that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best offerings on the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP.
Based on what the iPod Touch and iPhone have done for gaming, we’re stoked to see what the iPad can add to the mix. Here are some game types we look forward to seeing on Apple’s big new baby.
Fight/space sims – With a larger screen and slightly faster processor, the iPad will be a more capable gaming machine than its tiny brethren. One game type that could be especially cool is a flight or space sim in which your craft is controlled by tilting and tipping the iPad as though it were the wheel or control stick. A game like the Nintendo classic Pilotwings would be especially perfect for this, although players’ arms might get a bit tired after a while.
Real-time strategy games – There have been several attempts to do real-time strategy games on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but using a teensy-weensy touchscreen to control groups of tanks, soldiers and so on just doesn’t work that well, especially if you happen to have meaty man-hands. The bigger screen real estate on the iPad’s 9.7-inch display will make these sorts of games (and their slower-paced strategy cousins, like Civilization) much more fun to play.
fctAdTag("bigbox",MyGenericTagVar,1);
Classic boardgames – Although the iPad isn’t as big as, say, a Scrabble board, it seems like it would be relatively easy to recreate the boardgame experience on the device. The networking capabilities of the iPad make this even more interesting... the iPad could be the central board where the action takes place, while players use their own iPod Touch or iPhone to issue Battleship attack coordinates, inspect Scrabble tiles, manage their Monopoly properties and so on.
Role-playing games – With all due respect to the legions of role-playing games that have appeared on the Nintendo Game Boy, DS and Sony PSP, it’s hard to feel truly immersed in a game world that’s presented on a screen the size of a deck of cards. It will be interesting to see what RPG developers do with the iPad’s added screen real estate and processor horsepower, especially when it comes to MMORPGs and other networked games.
Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch – One huge selling feature of the iPad is it can run virtually every app already available for the iPhone and iPod touch, with the option of doubling the screen resolution to fill more of the device’s display. Just the idea of playing a big-screen version of games like Fieldrunners, Fight Control or Rolando is almost enough to make us want an iPad. And you can bet iPad-enhanced versions of these games are already in the works.

Droid does, iPhone doesn't: The porn app store

Oh, you knew someone was going to do this. So let's just get it over with. And though some might think of this as a battle between the Droid and the iPhone for the nation's morality, let's be open-source about it: someone's trying to make a lot of money from cell phone porn.
A company with the obtusely childlike name MiKandi has launched a mobile app store that will exclusively cater to adults whose brain food consists of content that reflects their age. Yes, the sort of stuff some prefer to refer to as porn.
MiKandi's publicity material naturally avoids this term, referring to the more PC phrase "adult only." However, there is a little kink in its offering. According to Android fanperson site, Phandroid, the MiKandi Market apps only work with Android phones and not with Apple's more morally minded handsets.
Cupertino steadfastly sticks to its policy of refusing to allow apps filled purely with adult content, though some might dispute whether its definition of "adult" isn't occasionally a little idiosyncratic.
Not for a moment would one suggest that Verizon or Motorola or the deities at Google are necessarily in favor of porn apps. However, MiKandi is attempting to take advantage of the fact that the Android system is more open than the iPhone's.

So while the Android Market itself doesn't offer porn, nothing on your Droid phone prevents you from using MiKandi's services. The wise people at Phandroid do, however, offer stern warnings about MiKandi's workings.
Despite attempting to use MiKandi's services, purely for scientific purposes, Phandroid failed to actually secure access to any mature content. Remember, children, this sort of thing will always be a somewhat risky business.Read More....

Google Android now has access to Fring mobile app

Fring has released their mobile application for the Google Android mobile platform.
Incidentally, Fring is already available on several other mobile platforms like Apple iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile.
Google Android version was much awaited and it has finally arrived.
Fring allows the user to communicate through several networks like Skype, Google Talk and MSN. It also works with Yahoo, AIM and ICQ.

The latest addition has integration with Twitter network as well. Read More....

Apple 'more profitable' than Nokia

Strategy Analytics said Apple's profits had exceeded Nokia's for the first time in the United States. Nokia posted a third quarter operating profit of $1.1 billion from its handset unit, while sales of Apple's iPhone generated $1.6 billion in profit over the same period.
Nokia, the world's biggest handset maker, is facing increasing competition from the likes of Apple and Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry. The Finnish giant's share of the phone market decreased by six per cent in the third quarter, and it reported its first quarterly loss.
“Nokia’s profit margin for its handset division has been shrinking during the global economic downturn in 2009,” said Neil Mawston, an analyst with Strategy Analytics. “We believe the United States, where Nokia now trails Apple in market share, is the key to Nokia’s recovery in 2010.”
Despite Nokia's huge global sales, it has struggled to dominate the US market in the same way it does elsewhere. The company is planning to make its devices more open to change by carriers in order to win over big network operators who wish to add their own logos, software and services to the handsets.
“A successful fight on Apple’s high-profit home turf can simultaneously help to revitalise Nokia’s margins and help put a check on Apple’s surging growth,” said Mawston.
Nokia and Apple are currently locked in a legal dispute after the Finnish mobile phone company accused Apple's iPhone of infringing its copyright and patents. Nokia is seeking compensation for the alleged infringements.
“By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation,” said Ilkka Rahnasto, Nokia’s vice president for legal and intellectual property.Read More.......