After we whispered that AT&T might be requiring messaging plans when you purchase select feature phones, we were hit up by a flood of connects. Long story short, it's true, and here's the break down:
• Phones that require a messaging plan at time of purchase include: Pantech Reveal, Pantech Impact, Motorola Karma, Samsung Flight, Samsung Impression, Samsung Magnet, Samsung Solstice, Samsung Mythic, Samsung Propel, LG Xenon, LG Neon, and the LG Vu.
• It looks like the minimum monthly cost when buying a "Quick Messaging" phone is around $20. That's a $5 200 SMS/MMS plan and a $15/month unlimited data plan. It doesn't look like you can walk out of the door without paying less than $20/mo in features in addition to your voice plan.
• There are slightly different requirements if you have a family plan, so check those out in detail with your AT&T liaison.
• If you have an existing "Quick Messaging" device, you don't have to do a thing. But, if you want to ever upgrade to a new device, you'd then be hit with the messaging feature requirement.
Not exactly the best news for those looking to keep their wireless bill pretty low (and straight forward). Catherine Zeta Jones, where you at?
Thanks, to all our connects that broke this down for us!
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Tips are streaming in about the Nexus One's data problems. No, not those data problems! This is new, and it's leaving virtually all Nexus Ones without any data coverage at all. What gives?
It's hard to say. Tipster Roberto says he's been in touch with T-Mobile, and got a reassuring, if not particularly explanatory, response:
I just got off the phone with T-Mobile who transferred me over to HTC Technical Support because I was not receiving data on my phone, opening the Android Browser indicated I needed to contact T-Mobile and add a DataConnect Plan in order to receive data on my phone.
T-Mobile check everything on my account & appeared ok then transferred me to HTC Technical Support who indicated there currently is a problem with most Nexus One devices connecting to Data Services on the T-Mobile Network and they hope to have it fixed sometime this morning.
Frustrating to say the least!
This seems to be the common experience: The prompt to buy a new data plan, the call to T-Mobile, the transfer to HTC support, then the claim that everything will be fixed soon. Some users are reporting HTC reps saying all HTC devices are having issues on T-Mobile, but the evidence—the growing thread of reports from users—doesn't seem to bear that out. This looks like a Nexus One problem, and a strange one: Without a carrier fault or software update, why would a phone just stop working?
I'll let you know when the dust settles—throw your theories in the comments. —Thanks, tipsters!
A few days before Crimbo last year, Blam posted on the news that Virgin boss Richard Branson was getting into deep water. Well, we've now got a render of the hydrobatic Necker Nymph, as it's been named.
The billionaire is taking delivery of the carbon-fiber underwater plane on February 20, and it will be available to guests at his luxury Necker Island resort. Sub, underwater plane, call it what you will, the Nymph uses fighter jet technology (pew pew) and is piloted with a joystick.
Although Branson has said that the carbon-fiber underwater plane would be able to go down to 35,000 feet, the $670,000 submersible can, for now, only dive to 130 feet. Yeah, well so can I, Richard - the only difference being, as far as I can see, is that I'm not a virgin. [Daily Mail]
Walt Mossberg was able to get a moment with Steve Jobs immediately after Wednesday's iPad event, and scored some great unscripted commentary from the Apple honcho on the iPad and its competition.
The interview portion starts at 1:55. Most impressive to me is how dismissive jobs is of the only clear advantages Kindle has right now. 10 hours of battery life versus a week on Kindle? Ptttthhhhppptt. "You're not going to read for 10 hours." And yes, he is talking to you, specifically. Kindle books currently priced five dollars less than iBooks? HA! "The prices will be the same," although what that price will be and how that gap will be closed remain a mystery. But it's been decreed, so there you go.
Everybody's talking about tablets, especially those single-pane capacitive touchscreen ones more specifically known as "slates." The iPad is the biggest newsmaker, but there are lots headed our way (most with built-in webcams). Here's how they measure up, spec-wise:
Click on the image to view it larger
As you can see, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some of which will become more clear in the coming months as we learn more about each tablet. (That Dell Mini 5 is especially inscrutable right now.)
The iPad has the most storage, cheap 3G, the time-tested iPhone OS and its mountain of apps, and a serious amount of Apple marketing juice behind it. But it's also famously lacking features common to the other tablets, such as webcam and multitasking. The Notion Ink Adam is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, with its dual-function transflective screen from Pixel Qi: It can be either a normal LCD or, with the flick of a switch, an easy-on-the-eyes reflective LCD that resembles e-ink. Its hardware is also surprisingly impressive—but it remains to be seen if Android is really the right OS for a 10-inch tablet.
The Dell Mini 5 and forthcoming Android edition of the Archos 7 tablet are two of a kind, almost oversized smartphones in their feature sets. Is an extra two or three inches of screen real estate worth the consequent decrease in pocketability? Perhaps not. And finally, there's the maligned JooJoo, formerly the CrunchPad, a bit of an oddball as the only web-only device in the bunch. It doesn't really have apps, can't multitask, and pretty much confines you to an albeit fancy browser, sort of like Chrome OS will. The JooJoo is also the only tablet here to have no demonstrated way to read ebooks.
A quick word about "slates" vs. "tablets": These are tablets, and it's a word we prefer. The sad fact is, it's overused. There's no way to say "tablet" without including every godawful stylus-based convertible laptop built since 2002. (Thank you, Bill Gates!) And even the new touchscreen tablets come in single-pane and keyboard-equipped laptop styles. So "slate," good or bad, is the more apt term.
Everybody's talking about tablets, especially those single-pane capacitive touchscreen ones more specifically known as "slates." The iPad is the biggest newsmaker, but there are lots headed our way (most with built-in webcams). Here's how they measure up, spec-wise:
Updated: We've added Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Archos 9 Windows 7 edition—see below for more details.
Click on the image to view it larger
As you can see, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some of which will become more clear in the coming months as we learn more about each tablet. (That Dell Mini 5 is especially inscrutable right now.)
The iPad has the most storage, cheap 3G, the time-tested iPhone OS and its mountain of apps, and a serious amount of Apple marketing juice behind it. But it's also famously lacking features common to the other tablets, such as webcam and multitasking. The Notion Ink Adam is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, with its dual-function transflective screen from Pixel Qi: It can be either a normal LCD or, with the flick of a switch, an easy-on-the-eyes reflective LCD that resembles e-ink. Its hardware is also surprisingly impressive—but it remains to be seen if Android is really the right OS for a 10-inch tablet.
The Dell Mini 5 and forthcoming Android edition of the Archos 7 tablet are two of a kind, almost oversized smartphones in their feature sets. Is an extra two or three inches of screen real estate worth the consequent decrease in pocketability? Perhaps not. And finally, there's the maligned JooJoo, formerly the CrunchPad, a bit of an oddball as the only web-only device in the bunch. It doesn't really have apps, can't multitask, and pretty much confines you to an albeit fancy browser, sort of like Chrome OS will. The JooJoo is also the only tablet here to have no demonstrated way to read ebooks.
Update: The two new additions in v.2 of this chart, the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Archos 9, are both unusual. The Windows 7-powered Archos 9 has been available since September, is the only slate here that lacks multitouch, and is the only one with a HDD instead of solid state memory of some kind. It's more related to the older tablets, but there's no keyboard, just a 9-inch touchscreen. It doesn't even have specific apps like the HP Slate's TouchSmart, it's just a Windows computer.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 is even weirder, in that it's actually two computers—the specs listed in the chart are for the tablet detached, but when it's attached to its base, it switches both hardware and software. In its attached form, it's a Windows 7 laptop with a full keyboard and trackpad, Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, eSATA, VGA- and HDMI-out, and all the other amenities you'd expect from a modern thin-and-light. We just have see what it's like when it ships in June.
A quick word about "slates" vs. "tablets": These are tablets, and it's a word we prefer. The sad fact is, it's overused. There's no way to say "tablet" without including every godawful stylus-based convertible laptop built since 2002. (Thank you, Bill Gates!) And even the new touchscreen tablets come in single-pane and keyboard-equipped laptop styles. So "slate," good or bad, is the more apt term.
According to DigiTimes, we'll be seeing both AMD Thuban and Intel Gulftown six-core desktop processors hitting in just a few short months.
It's all from anonymous sources, but at least on the Intel side the information matches up with what we've seen previously. Gulftown (aka the Core i7-980X) will apparently be available as early as this March, although at a hefty $1,000 or more per chip. Gulftown is also rumored to be the processor for the next Mac Pro, so it's encouraging to see it nearly ready to debut.
On the AMD side, you'll have to wait a little longer. According to DigiTimes, the Phenom II X6 1075T, 1055T and 1035T, all 45nm process chips, will be available in May. [DigiTimes]
If only Apple had recreated its app wall from WWDC last year, but with iPads! The 300 iPads used in this concept wall from Austraian architects would cost $149,700 if it was real. Apple could've afforded it, I'm sure.
ClarkeHopkinsClarke, the Aussie architects who mocked up the above concept wall, believe it'd be the perfect installation for a library, with hundreds of different ebooks displayed. But that's not the end of this story—due to the size and weight of the iPad, we could be seeing a lot of innovative uses for them, as interactive wallpaper in clubs, teaching aides in schools, and so on. There's the small hurdle of cost, of course. [ClarkeHopkinsClarke via TUAW]
This is what you do when your company is losing consumer confidence - come up with really spanky little ideas like this one. Nokia is researching a concept that it calls Mobile Radar. So, let's call it Mobile Radar.
As well as measuring an object's distance, speed and direction, you can adjust the volume on the cellphone's music player - even when it's in your pocket, or covered by an object. The researchers, from Aalto University, wanted to really ramp up the speed, testing it out on a bike, but apparently there was too much snow in Finland to do it. Astonishing, that. [Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]
This is not a kid's toy to build spatial awareness and Tengu knowledge. Rather, it's a cute idea for a portable freezer by a dude called Ruben Iglesias* that's powered by photocells in two LED lamps, working via magnetic induction.
See those two yellow things in the lid? That's you that is. Well, maybe it's some of our readers. They contain the photocells that power the freezer, dispensing the current via magnetic induction, and double up as lamps. You can set the lights to three modes: On; Flicker; and SOS, I've eaten all the pies and am so fat I can't get off the picnic rug. Muuuuuuuum!
If you've really stuffed the freezer box (this is not a euphemism, then you'll need both of the yellow thingies to keep your scran cool. If you're a Zoe-bot and it's only half full, then you only need one of the batteries. I likey. [Yanko]
*I'm really hoping he's Julio Iglesias' nephew and this is actually a container to transport the fresh blood of virgins that his uncle needs to stay looking "young" (I mean that in the loosest possible terms, of course.)
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