AllThingsD » battery life

Intel Unveils New Low-Power Mobile Chip Designs

Mike Isaac — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:26:13 +0000

Intel revealed its latest low-power chip architecture on Monday, continuing its push into competing in the mobile space.

Dubbed “Silvermont,” the new design sets its sights squarely on devices like smartphones and tablets, which obviously have limitations on battery life and require system-on-a-chip specifications made with energy efficiency in mind.

The design incorporates Intel’s “tri-gate” 3-D transistor technology first introduced in 2011, which essentially lets the company create smaller, faster processors which can perform at a lower voltage with less power leakage. Intel claims an improvement of around five times lower power consumption over its current Atom core mobile chips, with three times more peak performance.

“We have the ability to monitor what the power delivery characteristics of the platform are,” said Belli Kuttanna, Intel fellow and chief architect, in a briefing with reporters and analysts. From there, “we can change the limits to where the CPU cores are performing and dynamically adjust the power budgets.” In other words, it’ll help decrease battery-life consumption.

The update is yet another move in Intel’s move toward mobile, a space the company has sorely lacked. Historically, Intel’s core strength (so to speak) has been building beefy, high-power processors for desktop computers — chips that have no business in mobile devices.

But as the industry has shifted to mobile over the past few years, competitors like ARM Holdings and Nvidia — which specialize in designing and licensing low-power architecture designs for systems-on-a-chip — have gained solid ground in the chip space, leaving Intel struggling to catch up.

Intel has continually promised to deliver better mobile results soon. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the company announced that it will debut new chips aimed at the high and low ends of the Android market.

“We’ve done a lot of work on Android over the past few years,” Dadi Perlmutter, Intel executive VP and chief product officer, said at the briefing. “We’ve shipped 12 different phones to market.”

And as Mike Bell, the head of Intel’s mobile chip efforts said in an interview at D: Dive Into Mobile last month, Intel is getting the hang of building chips for mobile, and claimed that its chips match and in some cases exceed ARM-based chips in certain performance and power-consumption comparisons.

Mobile is clearly a growing priority for Intel, especially as sales of personal computers, a market it dominates, have crashed to historically low levels. The decline has started to hit Intel where it counts: In its quarterly results, which last month showed a year-on-year decline of 25 percent.

Intel’s incoming CEO Brian Krzanich — tapped by its board of directors last week to succeed Paul Otellini, who is retiring — is said to have won the job in a joint pitch with incoming president Renée James that includes using Intel’s world-leading manufacturing capabilities to push chips into emerging product categories like wearable devices.

Intel plans to introduce the new Silvermont technology later this year. Shares of Intel were trading down a penny at $23.95 midday.

The New Motorola Is Still Looking to Accessorize

Ina Fried — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:40:24 +0000

Under Google, Motorola has exited markets, cut thousands of jobs, and sold its cable set-top box unit.

But the company has apparently decided to stick with its business of making accessories that complement its phones. Motorola is putting the finishing touches on a new lineup of Bluetooth headsets and other add-ons.

Twitter user @evleaks, known for accurately predicting past moves, posted a photo on Friday of several new audio accessories under the “Sonic” brand name. Products include the Sonic Boom and Sonic Sliver II earpieces, as well as a Sonic Hub and Sonic Buds Bluetooth headphones.

Motorola is also working on a new external battery unit, tentatively being slated to carry the Atomic brand name, according to sources. That unit is designed to play on the need for better battery life, a focus at Motorola that predates the Google acquisition.

However, both the Atomic and Sonic names are still subject to change before launch, a source cautioned.

While the arrival of a new lineup of headsets and a battery charger isn’t exactly earth-shattering, it suggests that the new Motorola is interested in continuing in the business.

Company watchers have been studying each move to get a sense for what the new Google-run Motorola will look like.

A Motorola spokesman declined to comment.

Without giving details, Google executives, including CEO Larry Page, have been talking up the company’s coming products.

Asked at the recent D: Dive Into Mobile whether Motorola would be focused solely on phones, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said: “Think of it as phones-plus.”

Expect to hear more about Motorola’s future at our D11 conference at the end of May, where Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside and SVP Regina Dugan will be interviewed onstage.

Improving Smartphone Battery Life With Apps

Bonnie Cha — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:00:41 +0000

People will go to great lengths to charge their dying smartphones. But keeping your handset juiced on the go doesn’t have to mean running into the nearest cafe to find an outlet, or sitting cross-legged on an airport floor tethered to a wall socket.

Accessories like rechargeable battery cases and battery extenders can provide temporary relief from battery drain. There’s even a solution that doesn’t require carrying an extra gadget — the power management app.

[ See post to watch video ]

This week, I checked out two such apps for Android: JuiceDefender by Latedroid, and 2X Battery by Sam Lu. It’s important to note that the Android operating system itself already has tools that can help you better manage battery life on your device. You can adjust the brightness of the screen, and manually turn off wireless radios, such as Wi-Fi and GPS, when not in use.

JuiceDefender and 2X Battery aim to make power management easier by automating steps. Both turn off your wireless connections when the screen is off, and then automatically resume operations once you’ve turned it back on. With the apps, I was able to get anywhere between four and six hours of extra battery life on the Nexus 4.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. With JuiceDefender, there was a slight delay reconnecting to my cellular and Wi-Fi connections. Meanwhile, not all of the features in 2X Battery worked.

Also, if you’re constantly using your smartphone, these apps aren’t going to help, since they need to be in “idle” mode to really work. Power users would be better off getting one of the battery-extending accessories; Juice Defender and 2X Battery are better suited for the average user.

JuiceDefender is available in three different versions: Free, Plus ($1.99), and Ultimate ($4.99). I tested the Plus version, which I would recommend, since it gives you control over your apps (more on this later). Ultimate adds a slew of scheduling and customization options, which might be overkill.

The app offers five different profiles: Balanced, Aggressive, Extreme, Customize and Advanced. By default, the app is set to Balanced, which suspends wireless connections once the screen is off, but syncs data every 15 minutes, so you still get notifications about new email, Twitter interactions and so forth. You can also still receive incoming calls.

Aggressive and Extreme are all about maximizing your battery to the fullest, so the settings are more stringent. Meanwhile, Advanced lets you customize all the various settings.

It’s worth going through this app’s tutorial and reading the overview to familiarize yourself with all the different modes, since it’s a bit overwhelming.

At first I stuck with the Balanced profile, but soon changed it to Customized so I could have more control over my apps.

I use apps like Pandora to stream music over my car stereo, but since all connections stop once the screen is off, Pandora would not advance to the next track once a song was over.

In Customized mode, you can bypass this by adding apps to an approved whitelist that allows them to keep working in the background even if the screen is off. Since adding numerous apps to this list would defeat the whole purpose of the JuiceDefender, I only included a couple, such as Pandora and Google Maps, while letting the others (Gmail, Facebook) sync intermittently.

You can change the time interval under the Customized settings tab, and also enable Night mode, which suspends the background syncing feature altogether during specified hours, such as midnight to 6 am. There are plenty of other customization options, as well.

The app worked as advertised in my testing. With moderate use, I usually need to charge the Nexus 4 in the evening. With JuiceDefender, I could go about a day and a half before needing to recharge.

Every 15 minutes, I heard an audio alert whenever I had new emails. But when turning the screen back on, I noticed that it took a few seconds to reconnect to T-Mobile’s network and my home Wi-Fi.

For example, several times I launched Facebook and got an error messaging saying, “No Internet connection.” Shortly thereafter it would be fine. This was slightly annoying, but I wouldn’t say it’s a deal-breaker.

2X Battery works in much the same way as JuiceDefender. There are free and Pro versions; the latter costs $2.99. I tested the Pro version, which lets you have more than one app in the whitelist, adds “night” mode and removes ads.

The app keeps it pretty simple compared to Juice Defender. There are only two profiles to choose from: Day or Night.

In Day mode, all wireless connections are disabled once the screen turns off. But it can reconnect to the Internet to sync data at various time intervals — anywhere from five minutes to four hours. Night mode adds a couple more options, including the ability to switch to airplane mode.

Like before, I added Pandora and Google Maps to the whitelist. Whenever I used either app, 2X Battery knew not to disable the wireless connection when the screen is off.

With moderate use, 2X Battery delivered similar performance to JuiceDefender. I went a day and a half before needing to recharge. The app was faster to reconnect to my wireless connections than JuiceDefender — almost instantaneously, in fact. But the background syncing didn’t always work.

Only twice during my testing did I receive an audio alert to new email, even though I knew I had messages waiting for me the other times.

As much as I want to conserve my battery, getting notified about new email is important to me, particularly for work, so this was a huge drawback. As such, I preferred using JuiceDefender over 2X Battery.

Smartphone batteries need a lot of improvement. But until that technology comes, these apps can help you squeeze a few more hours out of your smartphones, provided you understand the apps’ limitations.

Motorola Takes Smartphone Battery Life to the Max

Bonnie Cha — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:00:27 +0000

Smartphones do a lot of things. They let you send and receive email and browse the Web. They double as media players, navigation systems and gaming handhelds. And, oh yeah, they also make calls. But all this functionality takes a toll on battery life, and with moderate to heavy use, you’re probably looking for an electrical outlet before the end of the day.

Motorola wants to change that.

[ See post to watch video ]

The company’s Droid Razr Maxx HD smartphone for Verizon Wireless features an extra-large battery that claims up to 32 hours of performance or 23 hours of talk time, and improves on the previous model with a sharper display. I’ve been using the Droid Razr Maxx HD for the past couple of weeks, and the battery life is the best I’ve seen on a smartphone yet. It’s the Energizer Bunny of the smartphone world.

But it also comes with a hefty price tag. The Droid Razr Maxx HD costs $300 with a two-year contract, which is $50 to $100 more than some of today’s high-end smartphones, such as the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III. The camera is also mediocre, at best. Even so, for those who are constantly on the go or are particularly demanding on their devices, I have no hesitation in recommending this Motorola device.

I did several battery-drain tests on the Droid Razr Maxx HD. First, I simulated a continuous voice call with Wi-Fi on, allowing the screen to time out after 30 seconds, and the smartphone offered 22 hours of talk time — an hour short of Motorola’s claims, but still impressive.

By comparison, Apple’s estimate for the iPhone 5 is up to eight hours of talk time, while the Samsung Galaxy S III is estimated at up to 17 hours.

In another test, I played a loop of video that I downloaded from the Google Play store. With the screen brightness set at 75 percent, and with Wi-Fi on and email running in the background, the Droid Razr Maxx HD lasted 13 hours before displaying a “low battery” alert.

Of course, those tests don’t really simulate how we use smartphones in the real world, so I also kept note of battery life during day-to-day use. With moderate use — checking email and social networks, listening to music, browsing several Web sites and streaming a couple of YouTube videos over Verizon’s 4G LTE network — I was able to go about a day and a half before I needed to recharge. Meanwhile, my colleague Walt Mossberg got between nine and 12 hours of battery life from the iPhone 5 with mixed use.

To see how it would hold up, I also added more power-hungry tasks, such as GPS navigation, playing games and streaming longer videos, and the smartphone was able to hang in for almost 24 hours. When I use similar apps on my iPhone 4, I’m usually scrambling for my charger after about eight hours or less.

The only downside is that the battery isn’t removable, so you can’t replace it with a spare if your phone dies and you can’t get to an outlet. But most people don’t use removable batteries, anyway.

With larger batteries, you can run into the issue of thick, cumbersome designs, but the Droid Razr Maxx HD doesn’t have that problem. At 5.19 inches tall and 2.67 inches wide, it’s not compact, but it’s thin at less than half an inch thick. It fit into my back jean pocket or purse with no problem.

I also appreciated the phone’s solid construction. The handset is built with sturdy materials like Kevlar fiber, and even has a water-repellent coating to safeguard it from accidental splashes. I can’t stand phones that feel like plastic (ahem, Samsung), and if I’m going to pay $300 for a phone, I want something that feels like it won’t break if I accidentally drop it. This device meets that requirement.

The Droid Razr Maxx HD’s 4.7-inch HD touchscreen is also protected by an extra layer of glass to prevent scratches. The display’s resolution is improved over the original Droid Razr Maxx, coming in at 1,280 by 720 pixels compared to 960 by 540 pixels. Text and images looked bright and clear, and colors were vibrant, if a bit oversaturated.

The smartphone ships running Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Motorola says the phone will be updated to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean before 2013, which will bring enhanced search and more detailed notifications, among other features. But the company didn’t have any information on when the phone might receive Android 4.2, which ships on the Nexus 4.

Unfortunately, the smartphone is overloaded with extra apps from Verizon. These include programs like Verizon Video and V Cast Tones. And there’s no way to uninstall the apps. The Droid Razr Maxx HD offers 16 gigabytes of internal memory with a microSD expansion slot, which is annoyingly hard to access and requires a special tool (included in the box) or a bent paperclip to open.

The only major downside of this smartphone was its eight-megapixel camera. Even in natural lighting, photos looked slightly dark. As a result, some of the finer details were hard to see in the images. The quality was even worse when shooting pictures indoors.

Still, the pros far outweigh the cons of this device. Call quality was remarkably clear on both ends of the conversation, and I didn’t experience any dropped calls during my testing. Verizon’s 4G network provided swift data speeds. I also found general performance to be smooth, with very little lag.

If you can afford it and battery life is of utmost importance to you, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD will not disappoint.

Mobile App Highlight Gets a Refresh

Mike Isaac — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:10:32 +0000

In its largest feature update since its debut, location-based discovery app Highlight launched a significant overhaul on Thursday morning, incorporating a number of new sharing functions. Among them are the ability to posit questions to others nearby, deeper Facebook Open Graph integration, and support for 10 additional languages. The update should also lessen the impact on battery life, a major early critique of the app.

Surface: Could It Be a Real iPad Competitor?

Beth Callaghan — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:31:03 +0000

Microsoft launched its Surface tablet at a Hollywood event in June, and with its 10.6-inch display, Windows 8 OS and handy-looking keyboard built into its cover, the new tablet immediately sent much of the tech press into a flurry of speculation on its possible success and its prospects against the iPad. Given the fact that no one has had a hands-on demo yet, we asked Mary Jo Foley and John Gruber, two of the most well-versed reporters on all things tablet and Microsoft, to comment on the hype.

Could the Surface be a real competitor for the iPad?

Apple: iPad Battery Nothing to Get Charged Up About

Ina Fried — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:38:11 +0000

While the new iPad has come under some criticism for the way it handles battery charging, Apple says the device operates in the same manner as past iOS devices.

The source of the confusion stems from how Apple manages the charging process from the point when a battery is very nearly charged until a user unplugs the device.

So here’s how things work: Apple does, in fact, display the iPad (and iPhone and iPod Touch) as 100 percent charged just before a device reaches a completely charged state. At that point, it will continue charging to 100 percent, then discharge a bit and charge back up to 100 percent, repeating that process until the device is unplugged.

Doing so allows devices to maintain an optimum charge, Apple VP Michael Tchao told AllThingsD today.

“That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like,” Tchao said. “It’s a great feature that’s always been in iOS.”

It appears to have gone largely unnoticed until this latest generation iPad, when DisplayMate analyst Ray Soneira noted that his testing showed the iPad not fully charged when it displayed 100 percent.

No matter where in that cycle a battery is, Tchao said, owners of the new iPad can expect the 10 hours of battery life that Apple has promised.

The decision not to keep changing the battery status was designed so as not to distract or confuse users.

Battery life has, of course, become a critical issue for device makers and consumers alike.

Chips, screens and other components continue to increase in sophistication at a rapid rate, while battery life has improved only incrementally.

The new iPad, for example, has a screen that displays far more information and requires additional graphics horsepower, yet offers similar battery life to its predecessor. In order to make this happen, Apple has put a significantly larger battery in the new tablet, likely accounting for the device’s slightly thicker body.

It would make sense then that users would find it takes longer to fully charge the device than its predecessor.

Further confusion often comes in for longtime gadget owners who can remember the days of nickel cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which had a so-called “memory effect,” requiring users to fully discharge the battery each time in order to keep getting maximum battery life.

Newer batteries, which use lithium-ion and other compounds, don’t have this issue. However, they do have a limited lifespan and lose capacity over time.

Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe said battery charging has become a complex art and science.

“What’s really subtle is that consumers think they understand that 100% means ‘full’,” Howe said. “That might have been the case with older batteries, but today’s batteries have microprocessors managing their charging. So 100% is whatever that microprocessor says it is — it’s not any absolute measurement of ion concentration or anything.”

Howe says consumers are probably best off just leaving it to the device to handle things.

“We don’t have to understand their engineering to use them,” Howe said. “However, we shouldn’t apply our prejudices formed (both good and bad) from older generations of battery technology to today’s systems either. If it says it’s charged, consumers should assume it is, and not worry about whether the charger is drawing current.”

So there you have it — more than you ever wanted to know about battery life. Now if only someone would just hurry up with batteries that last longer.

Is Your New iPad Fibbing About Whether It Is Fully Charged?

Ina Fried — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:35:27 +0000

There is no question that the new iPad battery is bigger and, as a result, can take longer to recharge than its predecessor.

However, one analyst says that his testing shows that it may take longer to fully charge than the iPad indicates. DisplayMate’s Ray Soneira said last week that the iPad continues to charge well after the device shows 100 percent.

In follow-up testing, Soneira said that the iPad is only about 90 percent charged when it first indicates it is fully powered up. The iPad, Soneira said, will run more than an hour longer, if left to fully charge.

AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg noted in his review that the new iPad delivers on its impressive claim of 10-hour battery life, starting when the tablet’s indicator said it was 100 percent charged.

Soneira plans to offer full details of his findings in an updated report on Monday.

Apple representatives were not immediately available for comment.

New iPad Display Passes With Flying Colors

Ina Fried — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:00:21 +0000

The screen experts at DisplayMate have taken a look at the screen technology in Apple’s new iPad and decided that it is indeed the best mobile display, offering far better picture quality than any other portable screen on the market.

“Apple has taken the very good display on the iPad 2 and dramatically improved two of its major weak points: sharpness and color saturation,” DisplayMate’s Ray Soneira said in a report. “They are now state-of-the-art.”

Soneira had previously praised the iPad 2 display, as well as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, which he said was the only Android tablet then giving Apple a run for its money.

That’s not to say Soneira doesn’t see room for improvement in the new iPad.

Even with all its pixels, there is still theoretically some room for improvement, Soneira says, noting that some people actually see more detail than shown on a Retina display. That said, cramming more pixels onto the screen requires more battery capacity and additional processing power. As it is, Soneira notes that Apple had to increase the battery capacity in the new iPad by 70 percent just to maintain the same battery life it had with the iPad 2.

So, rather than focus on more pixels, DisplayMate suggests other areas for Apple to improve on, particularly the reflectiveness of the screen, which affects how well it does in brightly lit areas.

A Droid Phone With a Battery That Outlasts Most Talkers

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:13:34 +0000

While smartphones have gotten smarter, and cellular networks have gotten faster, battery life has struggled to keep pace. In my own use, recent iPhone models and most Android phones manage to get through a day on one charge. However, for many others, smartphones don’t make it through a long workday, and that is especially true for Android phones using the new, faster, 4G networks, which can drain power at an alarming rate.

[ See post to watch video ]

Even assessing cellphone-battery life has become trickier. In the old days, voice-call “talk time” was pretty much all that mattered. But today, people use the devices for a variety of tasks, including voice calls, Web browsing, playing local or remote audio and video, running apps, and gaming. The battery drain varies, depending on factors such as the kind of connection or how far you are from a cellular tower.

Now, Motorola has introduced a 4G Android smartphone on Verizon Wireless that seeks to erase battery worries. It is called the Droid Razr Maxx and it attacks the power problem with a huge battery almost twice the capacity of the one in the company’s similar Droid Razr, and more than double the capacity of the one in Apple’s iPhone 4S.

Droid Razr Maxx

I’ve been testing the Droid Razr Maxx, which has been out since late January, and found it delivers far greater battery life than any smartphone on which I’ve run battery tests. In one test, it lasted more than 20 hours in mixed, moderate use, including voice calls, video playback, and lots of Web and apps usage, plus downloading hundreds of emails. I also conducted a simulated, continuous test voice call, which the phone powered through for more than 20 hours before dying. And it played videos back to back for more than 14 hours before the battery gave up.

By comparison, Apple claims talk time of up to eight hours, and video playback of up to 10 hours for the iPhone 4S.

To me, the Droid Razr Maxx is the smartphone to choose if you are a heavy user for whom battery life is a problem, or a light or moderate user who would like to charge your phone less often. But there are trade-offs, notably price.

Unlike the plain Droid Razr, or the iPhone 4S, which start at $200, you have to pay $300 for the Droid Razr Maxx. This is somewhat offset by the fact that it comes with 32 gigabytes of memory, instead of the usual base amount of 16 gigabytes. An iPhone with 32 gigabytes costs $299 and doesn’t have the bigger battery. But with the Maxx, you have no choice: There is no cheaper option.

And then there is size and weight. The large battery makes the Maxx significantly thicker and heavier than the ultra-slender Droid Razr. But it is still fairly thin and light. Unlike old phones with “expanded” batteries, it doesn’t sport a huge bulge on the back.

iPhone 4S

Still, like a lot of recent Android phones, it’s wide, perhaps too wide for comfortable use by someone with small hands.

The most impressive test result I got was in the voice-call test. To simulate my end of the conversation, I placed the Maxx next to a laptop playing a repeating loop of famous speeches. To simulate the other end, I dialed into a special test number Motorola has that features a spoken voice on a similar repeating loop. Ignoring the company’s test suggestions, I kept power-draining functions such as Wi-Fi, 4G and Bluetooth running during the test, because I don’t think people turn those off when they make a call. Still, the call lasted 20 hours, 11 minutes.

One note: The screen, a major source of battery use, was dark for most of the call, but it would also turn off if the phone were held up to your ear for a real-life call.

In other respects, the Droid Razr Maxx is pretty much the same as most other current Android phones. Like them, its pluses include a large screen — 4.3 inches in this case — and a single sign-in for a variety of services from Google, which makes Android and is in the process of acquiring Motorola.

Like some other Motorola phones, the Maxx can be used with an optional $250 dock that resembles a laptop. When docked, it can run the Firefox Web browser. Motorola is committed to this idea, but, so far, consumers seem unmoved.

I found the Maxx to be a reliable phone. In tests around Washington, D.C., it didn’t drop a single call, voice quality was good in both regular and speakerphone mode, and Verizon’s LTE 4G network was very fast, typically delivering download speeds of 13 or 14 megabits per second, better than many home wired services.

The software ran smoothly and quickly, but, as is typical with Android phones, various apps crashed a couple of times. The Maxx runs an older version of Android, called Gingerbread, but Motorola says it will eventually be upgraded to the latest version, called Ice Cream Sandwich.

The rear, 8-megapixel camera took very good video around my neighborhood, but I found the still photos it took to be worse than those on some Samsung models and the latest iPhone.

Motorola delivers a few software features that attempt to differentiate it from competitors. One, called MotoCast, can sync music, photos, videos and documents from a PC or Mac, either using a USB cable or wirelessly. In my tests, it worked fine.

Another, called Smart Actions, is a somewhat geeky feature that lets you set certain actions that will occur when a “trigger” action happens. For instance, I was able to make the phone start playing a particular playlist of songs when earbuds were plugged in. The result is cool, but it’s likely too much work for most people.

If you are dying for longer battery life and are willing to pay more, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is the smartphone for you.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Take Zap! Tech Geeks, Starved for More Battery Power, Give Themselves a Charge.

Geoffrey A. Fowler and Ian Sherr — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:49:12 +0000

Any geek can tell you that battery life hasn’t kept up with gadget innovations. But not to worry: Inventors are figuring out how to turn geeks into batteries.

While most gadget lovers hunt for empty wall sockets to charge their devices, Kevin Bartholomew just plugs his cellphone into his hip. That is where he keeps a nine-inch device looped around his belt that converts the kinetic energy of his motion into enough power to keep his devices running.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Nvidia's Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways

Ina Fried — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:30:52 +0000

Well, the Tegra 3 is just full of surprises.

Nvidia has already disclosed that its quad-core chip also packs a low-power fifth core that can be used in place of the other four to save power. On Monday, Nvidia shared a few more secrets about its latest smartphone and tablet processor.

Among its other power-conserving superpowers is the ability to reduce the amount of backlighting needed. It does this by looking frame by frame at what is being displayed and, when possible, opening up pixels and turning down the backlight where possible.

“That adds a significant amount of battery life to these mobile devices,” Nvidia mobile unit head Mike Rayfield said in an interview, noting that backlights are one of the bigger drains on battery life. In addition to the backlight trick and the low-power core, Rayfield said the Tegra 3 also eliminates the need for a separate controller to process input on a touchscreen.

The Tegra 3 is already shipping in Asus’s Transformer Prime (a device first shown at AsiaD). At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nvidia is showing the Tegra 3 in action on a bunch of other devices.

Nvidia isn’t the only chipmaker trying to make a case for its processors this week. Both Intel CEO Paul Otellini and Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs are slated to deliver keynote speeches on Tuesday.

All three companies are trying to make the case for why their processors should be the brains of device makers’ next mobile gadgets. And they aren’t the only ones: Texas Instruments, MediaTek and Broadcom are also angling for different segments of the market.

Apple Releases Software Update Designed to Fix iOS 5 Battery Issues

Ina Fried — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:16:41 +0000

Apple on Thursday issued a minor software update to the operating system that powers the iPhone, designed to fix several bugs that Apple says are to blame for the lower-than-expected battery life some users have been seeing.

In addition to trying to improve battery life, the 5.0.1 update adds a couple of features, including the ability for original iPad owners to use the multitasking gestures that Apple added with iOS 5. There’s no immediate word on whether the update adds the panoramic photo capacity or the improved autocorrect features that enthusiasts have uncovered hidden within the operating system. (Update: Neither feature is there.)

Apple had said it would release an update to fix the bugs, though on Nov. 2, the company noted that it might take a couple of weeks for the update to be ready.

The update appears as an option within iTunes but doesn’t appear to be an option yet for getting over the air. With iOS5, Apple has said that devices will now be able to be updated without needing to connect to a computer.

Users have reported decidedly mixed results with iOS 5 with some saying they are getting battery life as advertised but lots of folks taking to Twitter, Apple’s forums and elsewhere to tell tales of woe and seek suggestions on how to at least get through the day on a single charge.

Update: Apple is in the process of pushing out the update to its servers for over-the-air updating. Some are already seeing the update, and others should shortly. The download requires Wi-Fi.

The software also includes several security updates, including addressing a flaw, found by Accuvant’s Charlie Miller, that could allow apps to execute malicious code.

Here’s what the over-the-air download option looks like on an iPhone:

Consumer Reports Says iPhone 4S Fixes Antenna Woes, Can Finally Recommend

Ina Fried — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:40:19 +0000

Consumer Reports, which has long had issues with the iPhone, says Apple has finally come out with a smartphone it can recommend.

The magazine initially withheld its recommendation because of call-quality issues. Even when Apple added a Verizon model, Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the phone because of the “Antennagate” issue, in which holding the phone a certain way could affect the phone’s signal.

“In special reception tests of the iPhone 4S that duplicated those we did on the iPhone 4, the newer phone did not display the same reception flaw, which involves a loss of signal strength when you touch a spot on the phone’s lower left side while you’re in an area with a weak signal,” the magazine’s Mike Gikas said in a blog post.

The company noted the battery issues that some users have been experiencing with iOS 5, and said it would retest the device when Apple releases its software update.

Although it added the new iPhone to its recommended list, Consumer Reports said that Apple’s model still trails several of the newest Android devices in its rankings, including Samsung’s Galaxy S II family of phones and Motorola’s Droid Bionic.

Verizon's ThunderBolt Moves Like Lightning

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:19:14 +0000

Amid all the mergers and maneuvering of U.S. wireless carriers, they continue a steady rollout of faster cellular-data networks, dubbed “4G,” for fourth generation. While the companies all use that term for marketing, the actual technologies they’ve adopted to deliver 4G differ, and so does the performance.

[ See post to watch video ]

Last week, Verizon Wireless, which is deploying a flavor of 4G called LTE, or Long Term Evolution, started selling its first phone compatible with this new, speedier network: the $250 ThunderBolt. Previously, its only LTE devices were data modems for laptops. Its other phones, including its much-touted Droids and iPhone, can only use slower 3G networks.

I have been trying out the ThunderBolt and I have found it to be a speed demon. Simply put, when used on Verizon’s LTE network—which isn’t yet available everywhere—the ThunderBolt delivered by far the fastest cellular data speeds I have ever experienced on a wireless phone. In my tests, it blew away not only common 3G phone speeds, but the 4G speeds offered by rival carriers. In fact, it was faster than many home land-line Internet connections.

In dozens of cellular-data tests I conducted in two metro areas—Washington and Orlando, FL—the ThunderBolt averaged 12.6 megabits per second when downloading data and 4.7 Mbps when uploading data. That is about eight times as fast as a Verizon 3G phone I tested in the same locations, and faster than many public Wi-Fi connections. Cellular-data speeds can differ due to factors such as location and time of day, so your experience with the ThunderBolt might vary. However, based on my tests, and assuming future Verizon LTE phones perform as well, I’d have to say Verizon is firmly ahead in the race for the fastest 4G network.

Of course, its competitors aren’t standing still. Sprint was first with 4G and continues to expand its network and add devices. T-Mobile, which agreed to be acquired by AT&T, has a rapidly growing 4G network, though it really is based on a souped-up version of 3G. AT&T has lagged behind, but it claims it will step up its 4G rollout this year.

Verizon’s ThunderBolt

I compared the ThunderBolt to recent phones running on each of the other carriers’ 4G networks, and none could touch the speeds of the Verizon device. In multiple tests in a spot in the D.C. suburbs where all the carriers offer 4G service, Sprint’s EVO Shift 4G and AT&T’s Inspire 4G had an average of just over 2 Mbps in download speed, and much less than 1 Mbps in upload speed. T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G did much better, logging 5.52 Mbps downstream and 1.77 Mbps upstream. But even that was less than half the speed of the ThunderBolt.

Sprint and AT&T attributed their poor performance in my tests to my location. But even Sprint’s maximum claims for average performance don’t match what my Verizon tests yielded. (AT&T doesn’t offer such claims.)

You pay a price: The ThunderBolt is 25 percent more up front than most rival smartphones, which tend to sell for $200. Its battery life, while much better than some other early 4G phones I’ve tested, isn’t as good as on some 3G phones. And, the ThunderBolt is a relatively heavy and bulky device.

Verizon hasn’t jacked up the monthly data fees, continuing to offer the same unlimited $30 monthly data plan for this 4G phone that it does for, say, its pokier 3G iPhone. It is also giving away—through May 15—one extra-cost feature: the ability to use the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot to power laptops and other devices. This feature has cost $20 a month on 3G phones. Verizon wouldn’t say the cost for ThunderBolt.

The ThunderBolt is built by HTC of Taiwan, and runs on Google’s Android operating system. HTC concedes that, beyond LTE, this phone doesn’t offer any significant hardware or software features that can’t be found on some of the company’s other models. It has a 4.3-inch screen, front and rear cameras, 8 gigabytes of internal memory and a 32GB removable memory card.

Battery life has been a concern on some 4G phones. The HTC EVO, which was Sprint’s first 4G phone, drained its battery quickly while using the faster network. In my tests, the ThunderBolt’s battery lasted about seven hours in mixed, typical use on 4G, which is fair, but not great.

Voice calls on the ThunderBolt were generally good, and it didn’t drop any calls in my tests. That may be because Verizon is still routing its voice traffic through its older networks, which have been very reliable. The LTE network is for data only. This distinction is invisible to the user.

I also tested it as a Wi-Fi hotspot and got download speeds on my laptop of 7 to 10 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 3 Mbps. But the hotspot signal occasionally dropped out. I also saw repeated crashes of an Android app I couldn’t identify, though the phone kept working.

The Verizon 4G network currently is available in around 40 metro areas. If you don’t live in an area covered by Verizon LTE, the ThunderBolt will still work on the carrier’s 3G network. You can see if you’re covered by checking this Web page. Verizon is promising to extend LTE to another 140 markets this year. It has announced plans for several more LTE phones and LTE tablets and laptops.

Bottom line: If you live in a Verizon LTE city and you want the fastest possible cellular-data speeds in a phone, the ThunderBolt is the answer.

Come see Walt Mossberg at New York’s Carnegie Hall at the JapanNYC festival, in a conversation with Sony Chairman Howard Stringer about where consumer technology is headed and the fallout from the earthquake. Friday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m. For tickets, call (212) 247-7800 or go to carnegiehall.org. Find all Walt’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Nintendo's 3DS Brings Dizzying Fun On the Go

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:35:29 +0000

The first videogame that promises 3-D without the goofy glasses is about to hit stores, but in my tests, it made me a little dizzy.

On March 27, Nintendo is introducing the 3DS. This apparent breakthrough turned negative for some when Nintendo added a warning to the device that said viewing 3-D images by children age 6 and under may cause vision damage.

[ See post to watch video ]

Unaffected by age restrictions, I’ve been using the 3DS for the past week, and it’s a lot of fun—though its chunky design looks like the company is taking a step back rather than forward. Its 3-D screen works as advertised without 3-D glasses, though its effects can’t be seen from side angles, so friends trying to peek at the screen won’t see much. It made me a bit dizzy after a while, so I adjusted a 3-D Depth Slider to make the screen images appear less three-dimensional. This slider, or a setting in parental controls, can turn off the 3-D.

The videogame industry has a lot riding on Nintendo’s launch. Sales of new videogame consoles in 2010 fell 13% to $6.29 billion from $7.19 billion a year earlier, according to market-research firm NPD Group. Sales have begun edging up in the past few months following the launch in November of Microsoft Corp.’s Kinect motion-controller for its Xbox 360 console.

The industry is facing competition from sleeker, lighter smartphones which offer good quality, downloadable games free or for a few dollars, much less than the average $40 price for each Nintendo 3DS game. While Nintendo has created products with 3-D capabilities since the mid-1980s, none have caught on. Nintendo 3DS is the result of improvements in screen technology and lower prices for these screens. The company, which is based in Kyoto, Japan, saw no apparent damage to its headquarters after the recent earthquake, a spokesman says. Business operations, including future product shipments, haven’t been affected, he adds.

Nintendo’s competitors aren’t jumping on the portable 3-D bandwagon quite yet. Apple has no intention of introducing a 3-D, portable display anytime soon, say people familiar with the situation. When Sony announced plans for its Next Generation Portable gaming device in January, the company confirmed this device wouldn’t have 3-D. A spokesman says Sony considered including 3-D during the development process for this device, but decided to focus on other features. A Microsoft spokesman says as consumer demand evolves for 3-D, the company is committed to evolving its technology. Both Sony and Microsoft offer 3-D games and movies in the living room via their PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

On March 27, 18 game titles will launch including Nintendogs + cats from Nintendo, and Madden NFL Football and Sims 3 from EA Sports. Almost all Nintendo DS games and DSiWare games will be playable in 2-D on the Nintendo 3DS.

Games that come loaded on the 3DS include Face Raiders and Nintendo 3DS Sound, which plays MP3 or AAC files and mixes your voice using funny sound effects. A Mii Maker program lets people make a Mii (personalized game character) with photos they take with the device. I created a particularly funny looking Mii with features that mirrored some of mine. But these Miis can’t be exported back to the Wii gaming console, where Miis first became popular.

Nintendo’s 3DS has cameras that capture 3-D photos for use in games.

Another cool game called AR Games lets users look through the 3DS cameras at six augmented-reality cards that come with the device. The cards make images more animated and three-dimensional. I found the effect so realistic, I reached out with my hand to make sure the imposed images, like a card with mini bull’s-eyes, weren’t actually on the table in front of me.

The 3DS has a few new features besides 3-D. A new circle pad works like a super flexible joystick for smoother navigation. Two outward-facing, stereo cameras take 3-D photos of friends or things, which can then be used in games. This made the games more personal and fun.

I used the 3-D photos I took in games like Face Raiders, which makes use of its motion and gyro sensors. The 3DS has an Internet browser, which wasn’t available on the device I tested. A Nintendo spokesman says it won’t work on devices until May. Also in May, Nintendo will start offering downloadable games for the 3DS.

Programs called SpotPass and StreetPass allow the 3DS to wirelessly receive or send data on the go even when the device is in sleep mode. SpotPass detects wireless hot spots so the 3DS can download free software, videos or game data. In late May, SpotPass will let users access AT&T’s Wi-Fi hot spots, free of charge. StreetPass lets one 3DS wirelessly exchange data with others within range (roughly 100 feet). A light on the 3DS indicates when the device has received new notifications.

The 3DS can perform other functions in sleep mode, like counting steps for a built-in pedometer. I carried the 3DS in my bag on several occasions throughout a conference and noticed a tiny icon of feet at the top of the screen with a number of steps beside it.

But the addition of 3-D technology to this device meant compromises on some key features. At eight ounces and 0.8-inch thick, the 3DS is slightly heavier and thicker than its comparable predecessor, the Nintendo DSi, which came out in 2009. (Apple’s iPod touch weighs less than half as much and is 0.28-inch thick.)

The 3DS’s estimated battery life is up to five hours while playing 3DS games, while regular Nintendo DS games will last up to eight hours. The DSi’s estimated battery life is up to 14 hours of game play. The 3DS is $100 more expensive than the DSi and its games are also pricier.

The Nintendo 3DS does a good job of incorporating 3-D with photos and games, as long as the games don’t make you feel dizzy. But its clunky form and limited functionality is up against steep competition from smartphones that cost less and offer more games.

Ian Sherr in San Francisco contributed to this article.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

iPad 2: Thin, Not Picture Perfect

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:01:33 +0000

Just as most of its competitors are rolling out their first multitouch tablets to compete with its game-changing iPad, Apple on Friday will start selling a second-generation model, the iPad 2.

The new iPad 2 is about a third thinner and over 10% lighter, yet speedier and more powerful than the original version, which sold a whopping 15 million units in its first nine months and, for many users, challenged their laptops as a digital tool. And it costs the same as the original.

[ See post to watch video ]

I’ve been testing an iPad 2 for about a week and I like it a lot. While it’s evolutionary rather than revolutionary like the first model, the changes Apple has made are generally pleasing and positive, and the device worked very well for me.

Its improvements, including front and rear cameras, outweigh the few drawbacks and feature omissions I found. For most average, nontechie users, I would recommend it over the handful of tablet competitors I’ve tested so far, especially given that the entry price remains attractive.

The camera application on the iPad 2 demonstrated after an Apple event in San Francisco.

Dozens of tablet competitors are coming this year and I haven’t had a chance to test them. But the iPad 2, in my view, offers an excellent balance of size, functionality and price, and keeps Apple ahead in the tablet race, at least for now.

However, unless you are desperate for the cameras or feel you are laboring under the greater bulk of the original model, I don’t advise that iPad owners race to get the new version.

The first iPad, which can be upgraded to Apple’s latest iOS operating system, is selling for $399 while supplies last.

Airy, but Potent

Apple’s design wizards have made the new iPad feel much airier. Placed on a table between the original model and the new Motorola Xoom, it makes the others look bloated. Its top surface doesn’t even reach the side buttons on the original model. It has much more sharply tapered edges, and a new, optional, white color adds to the sense of lightness. While the 1.33-pound weight isn’t that much less than the original’s, I found the difference noticeable when carrying the device.

The iPad 2 is about a third thinner yet speedier and more powerful than the first.

Despite being slimmed down, the new iPad 2 still has the same vivid, large 9.7-inch screen, and claims the same lengthy 10-hour battery as the original. Like its current and planned competitors, it now sports a dual-core processor (a chip with two brains) and graphics that Apple says are up to nine times as fast.

But, despite gaining a faster processor, and the front and rear cameras, it still carries the same base price of $499, which competitors have so far found hard to match. Like the first model, it can range up to $829, depending on configuration.

Another crucial strength: The iPad 2 can run about 350,000 third-party apps, including 65,000 that have been optimized for the tablet’s large screen, rather than for the iPhone’s smaller display. Those numbers far exceed what is available for Google’s fast-growing Android platform—Apple’s main mobile competitor—that, according to Google, has 150,000 third-party apps, including fewer than 100 optimized so far for its brand-new tablet version.

I didn’t find the speed difference on iPad 2 to be dramatic, but it was noticeable. Apps launched and ran a bit quicker and the whole device felt very snappy.

It never crashed in my tests, unlike every Android tablet I’ve tested.

Like the original iPad, the new model can be purchased with just Wi-Fi connectivity or with added cellular-data connectivity, which doesn’t require a contract. But the iPad 2 offers a choice between AT&T and Verizon, for those who want cellular. My test unit used Verizon and got decent data speeds. Verizon’s fees start at $20 a month for 1 gigabyte of data. AT&T’s start at $15 a month for 250 megabytes of data.

The iPad 2′s cameras offer decent quality video, good enough for making calls, but disappointing still photos.

Drawbacks

The iPad 2 does have some drawbacks. Its cameras take mediocre still photos and Apple won’t even reveal their megapixel ratings. The company says they were designed for video, not still photography. They did capture decent video in my tests, including high-definition video from the rear camera and video good enough from the front camera for satisfying video calling. But, for a company known for quality, which bundles a new still-photo app with the device, the cameras are disappointing.

Also, the battery life, while very good, isn’t as strong as I found it to be on the first iPad. In my tough battery test, where I played full-length movies until the battery died, with the screen brightness at about 75% and both Wi-Fi and cellular radios running, the iPad 2 just barely exceeded Apple’s claimed battery life, dying after 10 hours and nine minutes. That’s 2.5 hours better than the Xoom did on the same test, but more than an hour less than I got from the original iPad, which clocked in at 11 hours, 28 minutes.

On the other hand, in mixed and non-constant use, with the screen set to turn off when idle for a few minutes, the iPad 2′s battery life was impressive. It easily went 48 hours between charges, even while downloading hundreds of emails and dozens of apps, songs, and books. During this period, I played a few light games, viewed photos, briefly streamed some video clips, read newspaper and magazine articles, consumed several chapters of books, frequently checked Twitter and Facebook, surfed the Web, and made a few video calls.

The new Apple iPad 2 shown during its launch event in San Francisco.

Another drawback I encountered was that the new, more tapered design makes it harder to plug cables and accessories—including the charging cable—into the main port on the bottom of the device, because it is now angled.

Despite being slimmer and lighter, the iPad 2 still has roughly the same length and width as the original, so it can’t compete with the Amazon Kindle, or the smaller seven-inch tablets, if you’re trying to juggle it while standing in a crowded subway.

Finally, there are two big omissions, one old and one new. The old one is that, like Apple’s prior phones and tablets, the shiny new iPad 2 still won’t play Adobe’s Flash video in its built-in Web browser. This is a deliberate decision by Apple, and puts its devices at a disadvantage for some users when compared with Android tablets, which can play Flash, or say they will soon, albeit not always well.

The other omission has to do with cellular data. The iPad 2 can’t use, or be upgraded to use, the new, faster 4G cellular-data networks being rolled out.

Apple says this is because the chips needed to do this are too immature, draining battery life. But the Xoom promises to be upgradeable to 4G later this year, though I have no idea how that upgrade might affect its battery life or monthly fees.

Software

Hardware matters, but software matters more and has been a key strength for Apple products. The iPad 2 doesn’t come with software radically different from the original model. But the latest version of its operating system speeds up the Safari browser, expands the capabilities of its wireless AirPlay system for beaming media to a TV using the $99 Apple TV, and lets you stream music and video from iTunes on a computer in your home. This all worked as advertised.

Apple also has two new $5 content-creation apps for the iPad 2: tablet versions of its Macintosh programs—iMovie and GarageBand. I used iMovie on the iPad 2 to create my own edited video, with titles, soundtrack and special effects. All of the apps I tried that worked on the original iPad worked on the iPad 2, only faster in some cases.

Accessories

Apple has a new $39 adapter that connects an iPad 2 (or iPad or iPhone 4) to an HDTV and mirrors what is on the device screen on the TV screen. It worked fine for me.

The company also has a very cool-looking, very slim cover for the iPad 2 that costs $39 in plastic and $69 in leather, and comes in a variety of colors. It attaches magnetically and turns the screen off and on when you close or open the cover. It also folds into a stand for the iPad and has a lining to keep the glass clean. Unfortunately, I found the cover’s magnetic latch came open in my briefcase, turning the screen on and wasting the battery. Also, the light gray color I had picked up smudges.

The Bottom Line

As new contenders move into the field, Apple isn’t likely to keep its 90% share of the booming tablet market. But the iPad 2 moves the goal posts, by being slimmer and lighter, boosting speed and power, and holding its price advantages, available apps and battery life. As of now, I can comfortably recommend it as the best tablet for average consumers.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com

Consumer Reports Continues Its Love-to-Hate Relationship With the iPhone 4

Ina Fried — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:50:53 +0000

Consumer Reports said Friday that the Verizon version of the iPhone–like its AT&T sibling–is susceptible to signal problems if held the wrong way.

In a blog post,, the publication said its lab tests showed phone problems could occur if the gap in the metal casing was blocked by a hand.

“The Verizon iPhone 4 closely resembles the original AT&T iPhone 4 in many positive respects, including offering great multimedia functionality, a sharp screen, and the best MP3 player we’ve seen on a phone,” it said in the blog. “Unfortunately, it also shares with its sibling the possibility of compromised performance in low-signal conditions when used without a bumper or case.”

The publication said its testing showed that the issue is specific to the iPhone and doesn’t appear to happen with other phones.

“The only phones in which the finger contact caused any meaningful decline in performance was the iPhone 4, the sides of which comprise a metal band broken by several thin gaps,” it wrote. “As with our tests of the AT&T iPhone 4, putting a finger across one particular gap–the one on the lower left side–caused performance to decline. Bridging this gap is easy to do inadvertently, especially when the phone is in your palm, which might readily and continuously cover the gap during a call.

As with the AT&T version, a case can help alleviate potential problems.

Consumer Reports declined to recommend the AT&T iPhone over the antenna issues, even though it still gave the device the highest smartphone ranking.

The Verizon iPhone is getting similar mixed signals, with Consumer Reports giving it high rankings but leaving it off the recommended list due to the antenna issues.

Update: Verizon said in a statement that its customers are experiencing “stellar network performance” with less than one half of one percent of iPhone 4 calls being dropped in major cities such as New York and San Francisco.

Blogs, MacBooks and GSM phones

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:20:02 +0000

I’ll be starting a two-year assignment with the Peace Corps in the near future. I would like to start a blog where I can record my daily activities for my friends and family to read. Do you have any suggestions?

There are numerous free blogging services that offer templates, simple tools and a free address your friends and family can use to view your reports. Two that I have used and can suggest are Blogger, owned by Google, at blogger.com; and the independent WordPress, at wordpress.com.

In terms of battery life, does it make any practical difference if I leave my common programs on my MacBook Pro running when dormant versus shutting them down when I’m not using them and then firing them up as needed?

I asked Apple about this, and the company said an open, but idle, application on a Mac notebook generally won’t use any or many processor resources, which means almost no impact on battery life, even if it performs periodic background actions like fetching mail.

Exceptions would be programs that do heavy-duty things in the background, like rendering videos. The company strongly advises making sure the laptop is in sleep mode when not in use, and keeping the screen at the lowest brightness level that works for you.

Also, you can check how much demand a program is placing on the processor by running the Activity Monitor, located in the Utilities folder in Applications.

Why would a GSM phone run in 3G-mode only on AT&T and not on T-Mobile?

It’s true that both carriers use the same basic technology, called GSM. But, in some cases, phones (like the AT&T iPhone) are locked so that, unless you do serious hacking, you can use them on only one of the two networks.

In other cases, it might have to do with the frequencies used by a carrier. T-Mobile and AT&T use different frequencies for their 3G networks, and a phone might simply be built to support only the 3G frequencies used by one of the carriers and not the other.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns at the new All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com.

Atrix 4G: Faux Laptop With a Phone For Brains

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:37:55 +0000

Today’s best smartphones are really hand-held computers. They run a vast variety of applications, from productivity programs to games, that mimic what laptops do. Their biggest limitations for serious work, gaming, Web surfing and multimedia are their small screens, cramped keyboards and tinny speakers.

[ See post to watch video ]

So, what if you could use the brains and connectivity of such a hand-held computer to drive a laptop-size screen, keyboard and speakers, thus overcoming these limitations? Well, Motorola Mobility has devised a new phone and accessory that aim to do just that: to make the phone the only computer you need.

I’ve been testing this new phone, the Atrix 4G, an Android device that will cost $200 with a two-year contract and will run on AT&T’s network. It’s slated to be available by March 6. I’ve also been testing its unusual and clever accessory called the laptop dock, which looks like a large netbook, with an 11.6-inch screen, full keyboard, touch pad, and stereo speakers. This dock, the price of which depends on when you buy it, has no processor, no file storage and no connectivity of its own. It’s dormant until you plug the Atrix into a slot behind the screen.

When you dock the phone, the faux laptop comes alive. It duplicates the phone’s screen on its larger display and lets you use its connectivity and apps. It also contains a battery that charges the phone. The image of the phone’s screen, and any of its apps you run, can be actual size or blown up to use the dock’s larger screen.

With Motorola’s Atrix 4G smartphone, the laptop is the accessory. The phone shown docked to the laptop dock.

Full-Screen Firefox

Even more interestingly, the dock gives you access to a full, and full-screen, PC version of the Firefox Web browser. Firefox is tucked away inside the Atrix but is available only when the phone is plugged into the laptop dock or a second, smaller dock that’s meant to connect to a TV or desktop monitor. The smaller dock lacks a built-in keyboard, battery or screen.

The laptop dock costs $500, but AT&T will knock the price down to $300, after rebates, if you buy it at the same time you buy the phone. That brings the combined price of both devices to $500—the same as the separate price for the dock. The smaller dock, called the multimedia dock, costs $190.

In my tests, the Atrix and the laptop dock performed mostly as advertised. The phone had no trouble driving the larger screen or the full Firefox browser.

I was even able to insert a flash drive into one of the dock’s two USB ports and copy songs, photos, videos and documents into the phone’s internal memory using the keyboard and touch pad. I edited and wrote text in an app called Quickoffice on the phone using the laptop dock’s keyboard, and ran various other apps, including the popular game Angry Birds, on the larger screen.

The Firefox browser worked as normal, using either the phone’s cellular or Wi-Fi connections to access the Internet. And both the phone itself and Firefox can run Flash videos, which mostly played fine.

But the combination of the phone and dock wasn’t as fast, smooth or versatile as having a real laptop, even though to use them you’re essentially carrying around a light laptop (the dock weighs 2.4 pounds). Many apps on the phone aren’t as polished or powerful as typical PC apps, and I found them clumsier to use with the keyboard and touch pad, as opposed to the touch screen for which they were designed.

Installation Issue

Also, other than Firefox, you can’t install PC programs. You can use Web apps inside Firefox, such as Google Docs or the stripped-down Web versions of Microsoft’s Office apps. For email, you can either use the program based in the phone or any Web-based program via the Firefox browser, such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail. But you can’t, say, install iTunes, or PC-based games, or the full versions of Outlook or Microsoft Word.

And there is only a primitive file system, limited to the capacity of the phone, which is just 16 gigabytes, with an option to expand to 48 gigabytes.

The dock’s screen required a lot of scrolling when using Firefox, partly because the browser has a lot of menus and toolbars. To address this, Motorola lets you convert Web pages to versions with the Firefox controls stripped out, so you just see the content.

There’s another problem with the laptop dock. When you make or receive a voice call while the phone is docked, you must rely on the phone’s microphone and speakers, hidden behind the screen of the dock. As a result, calls sounded muffled on both ends, even though the phone automatically switches into speakerphone mode. Motorola says it is working on this issue.

Despite the drawbacks, some folks will surely be attracted to this innovative combination.

If you mostly do your computing tasks on a phone or a PC Web browser, storing files in the cloud and using phone or Web-based apps, Motorola has you covered. And the fact that the dock can charge the phone is a big plus.

Motorola’s Atrix 4G

The Phone Side

What about the phone itself?

Well, it’s one of the nicest smartphones I’ve tested. Its processor makes it fast, and it has a 4-inch, high-resolution screen—almost as high as the iPhone 4′s, though not quite as sharp to my eye. It runs an older version of Android, but Motorola is promising an upgrade.

The phone also has good battery life. It lasted a full day while I was testing it and Motorola claims up to nine hours of talk time. Photos and videos I took with the phone were sharp, and it has a front camera for video calls.

The Atrix also has two other notable features. First, it can take advantage of AT&T’s souped-up 3G network, which the carrier calls 4G because it can supposedly achieve 4G data speeds.

In my tests, in the D.C. and New York areas, the speed wasn’t especially impressive, averaging just a bit better than 3G speeds on other AT&T phones I’d tested.

There is also a fingerprint sensor built into the phone, which you can use instead of a pass code to secure the phone. It worked fine for me.

Overall, this is a very nice Android phone that can imitate a limited version of a laptop. That may be enough for some folks, but fall short for others.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

The Streak 7: Bargain Tablet From Dell Is No Real Deal

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:01:23 +0000

If you could get a tablet for the price of a smart phone, and if it also worked on one of the new, faster, 4G-class cellular networks, you’d jump at the chance, right? Dell and T-Mobile hope so, and that’s why they’ve brought out the Dell Streak 7, at just $200 with a two-year service contract.

[ See post to watch video ]

The Streak 7, Dell’s second effort to compete with Apple’s $500 iPad, is the least expensive tablet I’ve seen from a major manufacturer, and claims to be the first capable of 4G cellular speeds (it also has Wi-Fi). Like many planned iPad competitors, it runs Google’s Android operating system. It’s also the first I’ve tested using a fast new processor from nVidia, the Tegra 2, which will power a number of new tablets this year.

Unfortunately, after a week of testing, I found the compromises Dell made to get to that low price make it impossible for me to recommend the Streak 7. Its screen, battery life, and software are all disappointing, and vastly inferior not only to the iPad’s, but also to those on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a high-quality Android tablet about the size of the Streak 7 released late last year. In other words, you get what you pay for.

Like the Galaxy Tab, the Streak 7 has a 7-inch screen, measured diagonally, or less than half the size of the iPad’s. But it’s large enough to be properly called a tablet, unlike Dell’s first Streak, an odd tweener device with a 5-inch screen—more like a big phone—that was released last year to a tepid response.

Dell concedes it wasn’t trying to build “the Cadillac of tablets” with the Streak 7, but was aiming for budget-conscious families and home use. Dell notes it has plans for a range of tablets with different prices, screen sizes and specs.

The Streak 7′s screen, battery life, and software are all disappointing. In other words, you get what you pay for.

The Streak 7 has some strengths. Like the Tab, it’s smaller and lighter than the iPad, so easier to hold in one hand. It plays Flash videos, which the iPad can’t. And it has front and rear cameras, unlike the iPad. It can also be used, unlike the iPad, as a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Also, I found its cellular data speeds impressive. In tests I conducted in Silicon Valley, the Streak averaged 4.63 megabits per second in download speed on T-Mobile’s souped-up 3G network (which it calls 4G because it claims similar speeds). That was nearly twice as fast as the download speeds provided by my hotel’s Wi-Fi network. Cellular upload speeds were a bit slower than Wi-Fi, but still averaged about 1.2 mps.

But, in my view, the Streak 7′s minuses outweighed its pluses. Let’s start with battery life. In my tests, the Streak 7 conked out after a pathetic two hours and 10 minutes of watching movies. That compares with about 11.5 hours of continuous video playback for the iPad and just under seven hours for the Galaxy Tab, when I tested them. In a more mixed-use pattern, including Web surfing, game playing, music, email and social networking, with some short videos thrown in, the Streak 7 lasted between 5.5 and 6.5 hours, still underwhelming for a tablet.

Dell says its target audience will use the Streak 7 plugged into wall outlets and TVs through an extra-cost dock, but I wouldn’t buy a tablet with battery life this poor.

Screen resolution also was so low as to be fuzzy at times, especially in reading small type, and viewing the screen at an angle often reduced the image to a ghostly outline. The Streak 7′s screen has a resolution of 800×480, below the much smaller iPhone screen, and well below the resolution of the iPad or the Galaxy Tab. While the internal chips drove video fine—as long as the batteries lasted—it looked worse than on the other two, as did photos.

The software also is a problem. It’s an older version of Android, called 2.2, which was never intended for tablets, and whose core apps—such as email, contacts and calendar—were designed for the smaller phone screens. Months ago, Samsung used the same version of Android on the Tab, but compensated by rewriting key apps to take advantage of the tablet screen, with more PC-like designs. Dell has done none of this on the Streak 7. All it added was a thin user interface called Stage featuring big, blocky widgets that group things like contacts and social updates, an old concept. It preloaded some kid-friendly and family-friendly apps, but some are mere come-ons that require downloading the full app.

Worse, the Streak 7 appears shortly before the true tablet-optimized version of Android, called Honeycomb, and Dell can’t promise that Streak 7 buyers can upgrade to Honeycomb. The company says the device has been designed to accommodate an upgrade, and is hopeful that it’s possible. But there is no guarantee. Buyers might get stuck with the old version built for phones.

Even on a tight budget, the Streak 7′s deficiencies might not make it worth the price. You’ll pay T-Mobile $30 or $50 a month for a capped data plan for two years. By contrast, the base iPad requires no payments to a cellular carrier, as it’s Wi-Fi only. Even if you buy the iPad with cellular connectivity from AT&T, there is no contract. You pay $15 or $25 a month and end the cell service at will, with no penalty.

You can buy the Streak 7 without a contract, but then it costs $450, too much for a device with its drawbacks, and only $50 less than the far superior base iPad. Even the Streak 7′s subsidized price of $200 is only $50 less than what its carrier, T-Mobile, charges for the better Galaxy Tab with a two-year contract.

Dell is serious about competing in the tablet wars, and it may produce a winner yet. But its first efforts, in my view, missed the mark.

Find all Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Verizon Beats AT&T in Voice Calls for iPhones

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:01:45 +0000

For millions of iPhone owners, or would-be iPhone owners, who dislike AT&T’s wireless service or prefer Verizon Wireless service, liberation is at hand. Starting Feb. 10, Apple’s iconic smart phone finally will be available in the U.S. on a second carrier, Verizon, instead of just on AT&T, which has been the exclusive iPhone network since the device launched in 2007. Current Verizon customers can pre-order the iPhone Thursday.

[ See post to watch video ]

Complaints about dropped voice calls, or calls that can’t be initiated, on AT&T’s service, especially on iPhones, have been legion. Meanwhile, Verizon has enjoyed a general reputation for reliable voice service. So, many frustrated AT&T iPhone users and those scared off by reports of dropped calls, or simply loyal to Verizon, have been eagerly anticipating this move. To these people, I’m here to say: Yes, there are some major benefits to having your iPhone on Verizon, but, as with all good things, there are also trade-offs.

I’ve been testing a Verizon iPhone 4 and comparing it to an AT&T iPhone 4, which has been out since last summer. The phones themselves are essentially identical, except for the fact that they have different radios inside to accommodate the two carriers’ differing network technologies. They aren’t interchangeable.

On the big question, I can say that, at least in the areas where I was using it, the Verizon model did much, much better with voice calls. In numerous tries over nine days, I had only three dropped calls on the Verizon unit, and those were all to one person who was using an AT&T iPhone in an especially bad area for AT&T: San Francisco. With the nearly identical AT&T model, I often get that many dropped calls in one day.

Calls on the Verizon unit were mostly crisp and clear, including speakerphone calls and those made over my car’s Bluetooth connection. On my first full day of testing, I did have several Verizon calls that dropped out for a few seconds, before recovering. Apple attributed this to a very minor glitch I’d encountered in my initial setup of the phone and urged me to reboot it. I did and suffered no more momentary dropouts.

The Verizon model also introduces a feature that some iPhone power users have been craving but that AT&T hasn’t allowed in the past: the ability to use the phone, for an extra monthly fee, as a Wi-Fi hot spot for Internet connectivity to multiple laptops or other devices. In my tests, this worked fine with Windows and Macintosh laptops, and an iPad. Wednesday afternoon, AT&T countered by announcing a similar Wi-Fi hot spot plan for the iPhone at an unspecified future date.

For an extra fee, Verizon iPhone users can use the phone as a Wi-Fi hot spot. AT&T has rushed to counter this feature with one of its own.

Also, Verizon is, for an unspecified but limited time, offering an unlimited $30 a month data plan for the iPhone. That is something AT&T once offered new customers, but has since replaced with capped plans offering fixed amounts of data at $15 or $25 a month. (Existing AT&T customers have been allowed to keep their $30 unlimited plans.)

What about the trade-offs? Chief among them is data speed. I performed scores of speed tests on the two phones, which I used primarily in Washington, and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and for part of one day at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. In these many tests, despite a few Verizon victories here and there, AT&T’s network averaged 46% faster at download speeds and 24% faster at upload speeds. This speed difference was noticeable while doing tasks like downloading large numbers of emails, or waiting for complicated Web pages to load. AT&T’s speeds varied more while Verizon’s were more consistent, but overall, AT&T was more satisfying at cellular data.

Also, because Verizon’s iPhone—like most other Verizon phones—doesn’t work on the world-wide GSM mobile-phone standard, you can’t use it in most countries outside the U.S. AT&T’s iPhone does work on this standard, and can be used widely abroad, albeit at very high roaming rates. In the midst of my testing, I had to travel to Hong Kong, one of the few countries where the Verizon iPhone functions. But even there, it only worked for voice, not data, at least in the areas where I was working. The AT&T model handled both voice and data everywhere I tried it there.

Finally, the Verizon model can’t fetch Internet data at the same time it is making a voice call, something the AT&T model can do. In fact, if you try to, say, call up a Web page while on a voice call with the Verizon model, you get an error message warning the two things can’t be done simultaneously. While this distinction is a weapon in the war of words between the carriers, I doubt it’s a big deal for most average users. My guess is that the most common things you’d want to check while talking would be your calendar, contacts and notes. And, in my tests, it was possible to check all those things on the Verizon model during calls, even though I have them set up to sync via the Internet.

I did have some issues with the Verizon model. In the D.C. area, long a coverage stronghold for Verizon, it kept switching briefly from 3G mode to slower 2G mode. This didn’t affect voice quality, and didn’t last long, but it slowed data downloads drastically for short periods. Also, on my first day of testing—after the setup glitch but before I rebooted—the Verizon phone showed poor battery life, and had trouble connecting to my car’s Bluetooth setup. After that, these problems disappeared. Bluetooth worked fine and I was able to make it through a day with the battery on both phones.

Apple lists the specs on the two models as identical. They both start at $199, both have the same battery-life rating, both run the same operating software. In my tests, I was easily able to transfer all my apps, music, photos, settings, music and videos from the AT&T iPhone to the Verizon model, using iTunes, and I didn’t run into any apps or media that failed to work as expected.

Prices for voice and data plans are a bit different. The least you can pay monthly for an iPhone on Verizon is $75, which includes 450 voice minutes, 250 text messages and unlimited data. On AT&T, you can pay just $65, but your data is limited to a paltry 200 megabytes, though you get 1,000 text messages in this scenario.

The Verizon wireless hot-spot plan costs $20 a month for 2 gigabytes of data, but gets expensive if you run over: $20 for each extra gigabyte.

One big question about the Verizon iPhone that neither company is answering is whether it will be updated to a new iPhone 5 model when the AT&T model is updated. Such updates typically have occurred in June or July, which could make people who buy a Verizon iPhone now resentful that their new phone was bested so soon. Of course, Verizon customers who wait might be resentful if their version of the iPhone isn’t upgraded at the same time as AT&T’s.

Officials at both Apple and Verizon will only say they don’t intend to make Verizon customers unhappy, but that could mean anything.

Bottom line: In my tests, the new Verizon version of the iPhone did much better at voice calling than the AT&T version, and offers some attractive benefits, like unlimited data and a wireless hot-spot capability. But if you really care about data speed, or travel overseas, and AT&T service is tolerable in your area, you may want to stick with AT&T.

See a video of Walt Mossberg discussing the Verizon iPhone at WSJ.com/PersonalTech. Find all his columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

RIM: Don't Worry About PlayBook's Battery Life

Ina Fried — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:59:40 +0000

Speaking about its business plans on Thursday, Research In Motion briefly addressed its forthcoming PlayBook tablet and reported issues around the product’s battery life.

Senior Product Manager Ryan Bidan said that the tablet will have a 5,300-milliamp-hour battery that will offer plenty of battery life, but he wouldn’t quote a specific estimate.

“We’ll have good battery life,” he said. “Don’t worry about the battery life.”

Among other details, Bidan said that, unlike with the BlackBerry, RIM will deliver software updates directly to PlayBook devices. He also said that there would be a version of App World for downloading programs created by third-party developers.

The company also listed a number of technical specs for the device, including a 1GHz dual-core TI processor, a 3MP front-facing camera and a 5MP rear-facing camera, as well as mini-HDMI and mini-USB ports. Developers, he said, will have unfettered access to the camera and HDMI port, paving the way for all kinds of cool video-conferencing and presentation-delivery applications.

As for the key details, Bidan stuck to the company line, saying only that it will ship in North America this year and refusing to talk exact timing or pricing. “We’ll be competitively priced,” he said.

Bidan also demonstrated the tablet synching with his BlackBerry to display email and calendar information stored on the handheld. Each PlayBook can only synch with one BlackBerry at a time, Bidan said.

Update, 12:21 pm ET: Asked whether RIM is still aiming for eight hours of battery life, as it claimed at CES, Bidan said, “That is the case–our goal is to get a full day.”

That battery, by the way, is a fixed, nonremovable battery.

Asked about the size of the marketing campaign that will accompany PlayBook’s release, RIM executives declined to give specifics, but said it will be big.

“It’s not going to be a soft launch,” said VP Alec Taylor. “The magnitude will be commensurate with the opportunity.”

PREVIOUSLY

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RIM: PlayBook Battery Life Will Be “Comparable,” Not Crappy

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Weathering the Storm, RIM Makes Its Business Case in Boston

Ina Fried — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:11:48 +0000

Mobilized is trudging through the snow in Beantown Thursday to hear Research In Motion talk about its plans for the enterprise. RIM is set to talk about why businesses should bet on both the BlackBerry and the forthcoming PlayBook tablet.

The event, at the Marriott Copley Place downtown, is just getting under way. I won’t bore you with every detail, but will post whenever things get interesting.

In the meantime, enjoy this take on Angry Birds for the BlackBerry.

Update, 10:17 am ET: The intro is still going on. RIM Vice President Alec Taylor is talking about the Cuban Missile Crisis for some reason. However, RIM was nice enough to pass out slides for the whole day. Here are some of the highlights:

BlackBerry Mobile Voice System
Launching in early 2011, this is an update to RIM’s effort to unify the desk and mobile phone, offering a single identity, voiceover Wi-Fi calling, a single voicemail box, dialing office extensions and more. RIM says the new version will support more types of business phone systems.

Other features coming later this year include automatic hand-off from Wi-Fi to mobile networks, a “move call from desk” feature and more.

BlackBerry Balance
A new effort to support mixing personal and corporate data on the BlackBerry. RIM is adding features such as the ability for IT to choose to wipe only corporate information from a device or to limit users from cutting work data and pasting it into a personal application or email. Other features include warnings when sending emails or calendar invites outside of the organization, the ability to encrypt media cards and options for preventing access to work data by third-party applications.

BlackBerry client for Microsoft SharePoint
Launching in early 2011, this will bring data from Microsoft’s portal software directly to BlackBerry handhelds. It will work with both the 2007 and 2010 versions of SharePoint and integrates into a number of BlackBerry programs, including E-mail, calendar, Documents To Go and the browser.

PlayBook
As for the forthcoming tablet, RIM says it will ship with 1GB of memory, have 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash memory, include a 3-megapixel front-facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and have micro USB and Micro HDMI ports. (I can’t remember if they have said all of that before.) The slides say only that it will ship this quarter and will be “competitively priced,” reiterating past company positioning.

According to the slides, the company also plans to talk about cloud-based device management and changes to allow one BlackBerry server to support multiple corporations.

10:35 am ET: The Cuban Missile Crisis is apparently over, and VP Pete Devenyi is now outlining the company’s business product road map and making the pitch for its strategy.

“We really do have a great story,” he says, noting that the enterprise is different from the “arms race” of the consumer market.

“It’s not just about the number of apps in App world,” he says, noting that businesses can and are building programs just for use within the corporation. Some businesses, he says, have hundreds of internal apps, none of which show up in the public storefront. BlackBerry, he says, also allows businesses better control than rivals over what programs are on a worker’s device. For example, Devenyi says, when workers change groups within a company, the programs they have access to can be updated automatically with programs deleted and added from their devices.

“That kind of power is power that no one else has,” he says. “We don’t read about that much.”

10:43 am: In addition to both the paid BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the slimmed-down free “Express” version of the server, RIM plans to launch an email system aimed directly at small-to-midsize businesses–MDaemon Messaging Server, BlackBerry Edition. The idea is to give smaller businesses a full email server that has full BlackBerry support. The product stems from an acquisition RIM made a year or two ago and offers what RIM says are features similar to Microsoft’s Exchange Server but at a fraction of the price.

The company is also launching “very, very soon” a modest update to its flagship server product, BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3. It will add more support for employee-owned devices (including the BlackBerry Balance feature described earlier), support for encrypted attachments and certification for Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and the latest version, known as Lync 2010.

11:18 am: RIM is launching yet another server this year, known as the BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware (BEAM). BEAM, which companies would have to buy in addition to their BlackBerry email server, aims to streamline enterprise content for use on a BlackBerry. ‘What that results in is a much more efficient application than you would otherwise have,” Devenyi says. It’s in beta now, he adds.

11:25 am: BlackBerry is launching its equivalent of Find My Phone, known as BlackBerry Protect, which will allow individuals to remotely wipe or post a message if a device is lost. Protect will launch later this year, Devenyi says.

Finally, the company is talking about a number of changes it is making to the core BlackBerry Enterprise Server so that it can run via the cloud. Launching later this year, RIM will have the ability for its server product to be remotely hosted and support more than one business. It’s not clear yet if this will be RIM offering BlackBerry as a cloud-based service or if this is a product for hosting partners, though it sounds more like the latter.

11:32 am: Devenyi told Mobilized that the company is just showing the architectural changes it is making, not saying how it will bring the cloud-based capabilities to market. “We’re still working through a number of those details ourselves.” Devenyi said. “It could be both, but we are not announcing.”

11:42 am: On to the PlayBook finally. Senior Product manager Ryan Bidan gives the spiel. He says there is a lot that the company isn’t ready to share. Addressing concerns around battery life, Bidan notes the PlayBook has a 5300-miliamp battery, but doesn’t give specifics on how much battery life that will translate to.

“We’ll have good battery life,” he says. “Don’t worry about the battery life.”

Other details:
Software updates will be pushed down to the device on an ongoing basis. There will be a version of App World on the device for downloading developer-created programs.

And with that, the formal part of the event is over.

How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?

Ina Fried — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:00:22 +0000

Most people expect the Verizon iPhone to be pretty similar to the current iPhone 4 sold by AT&T–but even if that is the case, it may differ in some important ways.

First and foremost, it will be on Verizon’s network, which Verizon loyalists and iPhone holdouts certainly hope will mean better calls. I think this will be an interesting test in general to see which of the iPhone’s shortcomings are its own and which can really be blamed on AT&T.

Of course, the Verizon iPhone may also benefit from lessons learned from the iPhone 4, and that makes an improved antenna more likely.

The Verizon iPhone might also be available in white–something promised, but not yet delivered, for the iPhone 4.

Less likely, but still possible is that the Verizon iPhone might have the ability to act as a portable hotspot, a popular feature on competing super-duper smartphones.

Also of note will be to see which networks the Verizon iPhone supports. While designed for Verizon’s networks, it may also have the necessary radios to act as a world phone when traveling outside the reaches of CDMA.

It also matters a great deal which Verizon network it works on. Support for Verizon’s 4G LTE-based network would increase cost and lower battery life, but have benefits beyond faster data speed. It would also allow Verizon a workaround for one of the CDMA network’s biggest limitations–the inability to mix voice and data at the same time.

PREVIOUSLY:

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time