Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid is all the rage right now. It’s chock full of Android 2.0 goodies like Google Maps Navigation and enough smartphone hardware to satisfy even the hardest core of mobile enthusiasts – all wrapped in a slim, yet masculine, package. But, Motorola is going to have to look beyond Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s CDMA network to go truly global. In fact, Motorola’s already got O2 (NYSE: TEF) Germany in its sights. Yup, O2 will soon launch the GSM version of the Motorola Droid/Sholes as the Motorola MILESTONE.
O2 lists the price [PDF link] of the MILESTONE at €404.20 ($595), but that number should get a nice little price-chop after some carrier subsidies. The O2 website shows the Motorola MILESTONE looking every bit the GSM Droid we expected it to be, which is a good sign that German’s won’t have to wait too long before picking up their MILESTONE.
We’ve already seen the GSM Droid pass through the FCC and pop up in Vietnam, so it’s not surprising to see it going official in Europe. The only question is, when will Motorola release a US-spec GSM Droid?
By Will Park on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:20 PM PST In FCC
There’s a shortage of wireless spectrum in the US, and it seems TV broadcasters are hoarding more than they need. To answer the “looming spectrum gap,” the FCC has announced that it is considering pulling a “Robin Hood” and taking wireless spectrum away from TV and giving it to wireless carriers. In addition to enacting proposed Net Neutrality rules, the FCC is considering shifting airwaves reserved for digital television broadcasts and auctioned off to wireless service providers – potentially putting upwards of $62 billion in federal coffers, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski believes that the US is on the verge of running out of wireless spectrum to meet the growing demand for wireless services. Under the proposed plan, TV stations would be compensated by the FCC for having some of their spectrum pulled out from under them. But, it’s likely that broadcasters will fight the FCC’s plan. The National Association of Broadcasters “believes it is imperative that policy makers explore spectrum efficiency choices that don’t limit consumer access to the full potential of digital broadcasting,” said spokesman Dennis Wharton.
The proposed spectrum auction is still in its early stages, so it’s unclear if the FCC’s final national broadband plan will include provisions to reallocate spectrum for wireless carriers. We’ll have to wait to see if the FCC pulls the trigger on their “Robin Hood Plan.”
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) surprise Q3 profit report isn’t alone today. Samsung has reported a profitable Q3 2009, with the electronics giant’s mobile phone division shipping 60.2 million mobile phones in the latest quarter, a 16% increase from the same period last year. That’s a new record for Samsung. And, thanks to higher demand for touchscreen handsets, Samsung reported a Q3 profit of $875 billion, a 23% year-on-year improvement.
Samsung claims 20.8% of the global mobile phone market, following only behind Finnish handset giant Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Those kinds of global sales figures haven’t been seen outside of Nokia since Motorola went to town with their RAZR in 2006. The push towards touchscreen handsets has clearly been working to Samsung’s advantage.
Samsung is also looking forward to a stronger Q4 fueled by consumers shopping for holiday gifts and emerging markets ready to adopt mobile technology. Still, competition from low- to mid-rand handsets from other manufacturers might be an issue for Samsung.
Of the nation’s three largest wireless networks, Sprint (NYSE: S) is the underdog. The third-largest US wireless carrier has been losing customers consistently over the past several quarters, despite compelling hardware offerings like the Android-powered HTC Hero and Palm Pre. But, things are looking better for Sprint. The carrier’s Q3 2009 financial results highlight the lowest customer defection rate in a long time, and customer service performance has been steadily improving.
The most recent quarter had Sprint losing 801,000 of its most valuable post-paid subscribers to other carriers. That’s a definite improvement, but still left Sprint with losses of $478 million in the quarter, compared to a $326 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Revenues slipped to $8.04 billion, missing Wall Street’s projection of $8.09 billion.
Sprint has been making changes to its customer service policies as part of a company-wide effort to improve the carrier’s image and service quality – issues that Sprint believes has been hurting how customers perceive Sprint as a wireless carrier. But, the change has been slow to catch on with consumers.
No one knows what’s going on with Sprint. But, it’s clear that Sprint’s big-money bet on WiMAX as the mobile broadband technology of choice for the foreseeable future has yet to transform the company into America’s premier data-centric wireless provider. Sprint seemingly can’t keep up with AT&T (NYSE: T) or Verizon (NYSE: VZ) in the wireless voice game, but the mobile broadband market has yet to take on a clear leader. Perhaps choosing LTE would have been a better idea?
The Motorola Droid is as hot as it gets in the smartphone space right now. It’s the first Android phone for Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and it’s the first (that we’ve played with) to sport the newly announced Android 2.0 OS. It’s not just the slim-and-trim Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid’s impressive 3.7-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and slide-out QWERTY keyboard that make it a force to be reckoned with – the Android 2.0 OS blesses the Droid with integrated turn-by-turn GPS navigation with voice guidance and street view through the new Google Maps Navigation application.
Unfortunately, the closest you’ll be able to get to a Motorola Droid at this point is Best Buy’s pre-order. Us? Well, we’ve had the pleasure of playing with the Droid for a few days now. The Droid’s massive display is as good as it gets. The vanilla Android UI responds without any lag. Despite the huge display and full keyboard, the Droid is as comfortable in the hand and pocket as the similarly-sized iPhone 3G/3GS. And, with a respectable 5-megapixel camera and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps Navigation adding icing to an already impressive handset, we have to say the Droid is living up to the hype.
So, how does it fare as a competitor to the HTC Hero and a possible candidate to unseat the iPhone as the de facto leader in the smartphone space? Check out our unboxing/hands-on video to see for yourself!
Here’s a quick rundown of the Motorola Droid’s spec sheet:
3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen at WVGA (854 x 480) resolution
Full HTML5 browser that supports Flash and will be upgradeable to Flash 10 once it becomes available
5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash; video capture at 720 x 480 resultion, 24 frames per second
Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s announcement of turn-by-turn GPS navigation this morning was big. Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s Motorola Droid announcement was bigger. Combine those two into an orgy of Android 2.0 and Droid goodness, and you’ve got the makings of a truly impressive smartphone. Just how good is Google Maps Navigation? Why don’t take a video tour of the new turn-by-turn GPS navigation feature from Google, by way of the first Android 2.0 phone to support Google Maps Navigation, and find out?
What you’ll see in the video below is Google’s solution to serve up turn-by-turn directions to your smartphone, even if it lacks a digital compass. As a bonus, Google Maps Navigation will show you your route in Google Maps’ satellite view or street view. Judging by our initial experience, Google Maps Navigation might be just the thing to finally unseat dedicated GPS navigation devices. It’s that good.
The Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid went live as Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s first Android phone earlier this morning. Then, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) announced that their Google Maps app for Android 2.0 now supports GPS turn-by-turn directions with voice guidance. The two announcements merged, like that those really big storms in that one movie involving a fishing boat of some sort, to form one of the biggest product launches of the year. I just got a chance to put my hands all over the Motorola Droid and thought I’d let you in on my initial impressions (and from-the-hip pics). The short version: Verizon’s Motorola Droid is badass. Keep reading for the long version (and a massive hands-on photo gallery.
The holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and you know what that means. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is going to make another killing. The latest rumors circling Taiwanese manufacturers and component suppliers indicate that Apple is preparing for increased iPhone 3GS demand by boosting production orders for the iconic smartphone.
Citing various industry sources, DigiTimes says that Apple has upped its Q4 iPhone 3GS production orders to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai) and Primax Electronics by 17-20%. Even OmniVision, the company that supplies the image sensors used in the iPhone camera module, is reporting tight supplies through November. As always, when Apple demands more product, component suppliers drop everything and answer Apple’s call – the rest of the industry be damned.
Apple set a new sales record in Q3 2009, despite shortages that left some markets hurting for iPhone hardware. And, if all goes according to plan rumor, the traditionally strong holiday shopping season could give Apple another record quarter.
You’ve been secretly complaining about how tedious it can be to toggle some of the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre’s connectivity features. You’ve probably even told yourself that there was just nothing you could do to make it easier to access Data, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and Airplane modes. And, today, you stand corrected. Enter the latest home-brew webOS app for the Palm Pre: Quick System Tasks.
The new webOS app does exactly what its name suggests – it makes everyday system tasks quickly and easily accessible. With Quick System Tasks aggregating all your frequently-used system settings, you’ll have Data, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and Airplane modes conveniently grouped in a “card” or the “dashboard.”
I’ve personally found that it can be a little frustrating having to hunt down the various system settings strewn throughout the webOS. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s enough of a hassle to give this new app a solid niche to do its thing, home-brew style. Good thing lazy people like me have developers looking out for them.
The pictures you see here will give you an idea for what Quick System Tasks looks like.
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Voice just got a little more useful, even if you don’t have a clue as to what Google Voice actually does. Google has just released a new feature for Google Voice that allows anyone to take advantage of Google Voice’s voicemail transcription service. You may not be able to port your existing phone number to Google Voice (yet), but now you can port your voicemail to Google Voice. Google will convert voicemail messages from your non-Google phone number into text (the real visual voicemail) that you can read through Google Voice’s website, email or SMS text! As long as your phone number and voicemail are tied to Alltel, AT&T (NYSE: T), Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS), Sprint (NYSE: S), T-Mobile, US Cellular, or Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless, Google will be happy to sort through your voicemail inbox.
The beauty of this new feature is that you don’t have to have to use your Google Voice phone number to get voicemail transcription. Just tell Google what phone number you’d like to tie in with your Google Voice account, and the magic gnomes inside Google headquarters will take care of the rest.
There’s a shortage of wireless spectrum in the US, and it seems TV broadcasters are hoarding more than they need. To answer the “looming spectrum gap,” the FCC has announced that it is considering pulling a “Robin Hood” and taking wireless spectrum away from TV and giving it to wireless carriers. In addition to 
Motorola (
Of the nation’s three largest wireless networks, Sprint (
The Motorola (
The holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and you know what that means. Apple (
You’ve been secretly complaining about how tedious it can be to toggle some of the Palm (
