Apple iPhone news

[AuTX Buckeye]

T-Mobile customers will probably want to hang themselves. I can't imagine this will add any tangible benefits for existing AT&T customers either. I'm a happy a happy AT&T customer, but I'm against this move. It's not like Verizon acquiring Alltel where they were able to increase their coverage footprint in the mid-south and Appalachia. To me it looks like a market share grab and the next step in the re-constitution of Ma Bell. (Yes, I'm aware T-Mobile is German-held and not a part of the original AT&T monopoly.) Next is for Sprint to be absorbed by Verizon, and before we know it AT&T and Verizon will come together under some unified next-gen technology.

This gets to why I was against the Sirius-XM merger a while back. The only two satellite radio providers in North America argued that they somehow weren't forming a monopoly, and the regulators bought it. When the mobile telecoms merge they'll make a similar argument - that their real competition is not amongst themselves, but from Skype, Google Voice, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, etc.

I'm happy with AT&T right now. I don't want to change. However, I want to have options should I change my mind.

I work for T-mobile in engineering. I can tell you this. This was about market share,about towers, and about reputation. Given how long its taking to build towers in come areas it can take YEARS! I hope I don't lose my job because the combined power of both networks could be something to see.

 

[jlb1705]

I work for T-mobile in engineering. I can tell you this. This was about market share,about towers, and about reputation. Given how long its taking to build towers in come areas it can take YEARS! I hope I don't lose my job because the combined power of both networks could be something to see.

It's not really going to increase the footprint though, right? I can't imagine T-Mobile was covering any areas that AT&T had neglected. What might this do to increase bandwidth in areas that are already covered? Is it possible that AT&T won't suck balls in NYC, DC & SF?

 

[Tonyank]

I wanna know kinda the same, will service get better where att sucked and say T-moible was good.

 

[Dryden]

It's not really going to increase the footprint though, right? I can't imagine T-Mobile was covering any areas that AT&T had neglected.

You can't just build a pole or a tower somewhere and start providing service. You have to buy (win at auction) licenses from the FCC. You have to slog through local bureaucracies and find land to lease before you can build anything, plus interconnect it to everything else you have already built. Some areas may have local regulations on the number of frequencies they'll permit, the number of towers they want dotting their horizon, or how tall they'll allow towers to be.

This is about two things: T Mobile's LTE network and their AWS spectrum licenses. T Mobile spent $4.2B in 2006 for 120 licenses providing coverage to half a billion people. With this merger, AT&T would instantly cover 95% of the US population with 3G by inheriting licenses in markets they cannot currently get, while also doubling their 3G presence in major metro areas where the iPhone explosion torpedoed bandwidth.

 

[jwinslow]

Crippled Phones Reveal AT&T Isn’t Ready for 4G

After Texas resident Keith Geissler noticed his new Motorola Atrix wasn’t offering the fast “4G” download and upload speeds that AT&T promised, he filed a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, asking the wireless company to “uncap” his data connection.

AT&T’s response was surprising. While the company assured Geissler it “has not capped the upload speeds on the Atrix,” it did admit that the phone’s HSUPA capability — a key feature in increasing upload speeds on the Atrix as well as the new HTC Inspire 4G smartphone — will not be enabled until a later date.

That means all upload speeds on the Atrix and the Inspire will max out at around 300 Kbps, far below that of the 5.5+ Mbps speeds that HSUPA is capable of uploading. (Geissler wasn’t happy to hear any of this, and posted the exchange to an online message board focused on smartphones.)

In other words, it’s not a hardware issue. It’s AT&T itself, which isn’t ready to flip the switch to turn on “4G” networks, even though it’s already selling 4G phones. Is anyone surprised?

“The concept of 4G is a joke now,” Gartner Research VP Phil Redman told Wired.com. “At the highest level, it’s supposed to be a technology standard, but it’s nothing but marketing now. If and when 4G-standardized technology is actually decided upon and released, we’ve been inundated with this jargon for so long we may not even recognize it.”

To add insult to injury to Android users expecting 4G speeds, many iOS counterpart devices using AT&T’s 3G network are indeed HSUPA-enabled.

Also HSUPA ready: the iPhone 4, a device using AT&T’s 3G network.

So when can we actually expect 4G upload speeds from these “4G” phones? AT&T gave Wired.com a rough street date of next month.

I always chuckled at the cop/spy Atrix TV commercial advertising 4G capable phones, but I figured that meant most of the 4G towers weren't ready yet.

 

[MaxBuck]

AT&T = All Talk & Trickery

 

[CentralMOBuck]

None of the networks that are saying the are 4g are true 4g.

In 2008, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced) requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Megabits per second for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbps for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G#cite_note-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

None of the networks that are saying the are 4g are true 4g.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

good ole wikipedia hasn't been updated. ITU changed there minds back in December, to include HSPA+ networks.

ITU Redefines 4G. Again
http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2010/48.aspx

MT-Advanced is considered as ?4G?, although it is recognized that this term, while undefined, may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMax, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed. The detailed specifications of the IMT-Advanced technologies will be provided in a new ITU-R Recommendation expected in early 2012

 

[jwinslow]

Apple’s Already Being Sued Over the iPhone Tracking Scandal

iSpy: Apple Will Fix the iPhone Location Problem

Ever since last week's revelation that iPhones and iPads were persistently logging your location without your knowledge or consent, Apple's refused to offer up any sort of explanation. Meanwhile, foreign governments, congress, and pissed off customers wanted one. As did we. Today, we get one. Pretty much.

The release itself is full of more hedges than a Versailles topiary garden—insisting that "The iPhone is not logging your location," but that instead "it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested." While the latter part may be true, their "explanation" of the logging is an arrant falsehood, since the effect of the timestamped database kept by your phone is that it is de facto logging your location. We're not tracking your location, we're just tracking your location! Right. So while this is an admission of some wrongdoing--"We don't think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data"—Apple still refuses to call a spade a spade. Your phone is logging your location, and has been since this summer. I've seen it with my own eyes, and so have you. Their defense is akin to saying "I haven't been staring in your window at you while you're asleep, I've been looking inside and admiring all of your decor!"

But the bottom line here is that Apple's (implicitly) admitting they screwed up, and despite their doublespeak denial of location logging, they are going to be fixing the location logging:

 

[MaxBuck]

iPhone users posing pictures of their friends and family on Facebook, then suing Apple for "invasion of privacy."

Ironic.

 

[CentralMOBuck]

Anyone catch last nights episode of Southpark?

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e01-humancentipad

 

[mercer_buckeye]

The release itself is full of more hedges than a Versailles topiary garden

Dennis Miller?

 

[jlb1705]

iCloud, iOS 5 to be officially announced next week:

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/31/steve-jobs-will-introduce-icloud-lion-ios5-at-wwdc-keynote-jun/

CUPERTINO, California-May 31, 2011-Apple? CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple's advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering.

CONT...

 

[jimotis4heisman]

what is the iphone5 timeframe now? labor day?

 

[jwinslow]

The iPhone is always announced at WWDC, which is next week (June 6-10)

No one knows what it will be named, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, etc.

Most don't expect 4G service on this upcoming phone, which throws a wrench into naming conventions.

Usually the iphone is available a few weeks after the convention.