AllThingsD » multitasking

Toshiba’s Widescreen Ultrabook: Good for Movies, Multitasking

Lauren Goode — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 13:00:41 +0000

Let’s face it: Most Ultrabooks look alike. When browsing through rows of these tapered, lightweight laptops in a Best Buy, many consumers wouldn’t see much of a difference between models.

So, in an effort to stand out from the pack, Toshiba has introduced an eye-catching, ultra-widescreen Ultrabook. Its display is much wider than it is tall, with a 21 by 9 aspect ratio — wider than even the rectangular, 16 by 9 aspect ratio that has become standard for most HD TVs. Called the Toshiba Satellite U845W, this laptop, with its extra screen real estate, is aimed at heavy media consumers and multitaskers.

It measures 14.5 inches by 7.9 inches, and is .83 of an inch thick. At four pounds, it’s substantially heavier than the 2.96-pound MacBook Air, but in line with some other Ultrabooks. It felt surprisingly lightweight when it was open and resting on my lap.

[ See post to watch video ]

The Satellite U845W hit the market in late July. The base model, which has a mid-level Intel chip, comes with a 500 gigabyte hard drive plus 32GB of solid-state drive and retails for $1,000. The model Toshiba sent me for testing costs $1,500, and has a faster, 256GB solid-state drive and Intel’s third generation Core i7 chip. Both machines are built with 6GB of RAM. While the Satellite U845W was designed with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system in mind, it’s currently running Windows 7. And, unlike some upcoming Windows 8 laptops, this one lacks a touchscreen.

Overall, it’s a solid laptop, with fast processing and boot-up speeds and terrific speakers. I did find the widescreen display to be useful for multitasking, because I was able to view a couple of Web pages side by side on the screen, such as a live video stream next to my Twitter feed.

But the design is a little too awkward for my taste. The wide screen feels lopped off at the top, and the laptop doesn’t fit some of my larger purses as well as other Ultrabooks do. Plus, I couldn’t find a ton of video content with a 21:9 aspect ratio to fully enjoy the widescreen experience.

The laptop’s color is called “midnight silver,” but it actually has a coppery sheen to it, which I liked. The chassis of the laptop is made of machined aluminum, with a thick, black, rubberized strip running along the long side, which gives it a distinguished look.

The underside of the laptop is made of a combination of polycarbonate plastic and aluminum, and is covered entirely with the same textured black rubber, for keeping a good grip on the laptop.

The keyboard is backlit, with an extra-large trackpad. Another benefit of such a wide-sized computer: My fingers had a little extra room and didn’t feel at all cramped while typing. The keys themselves were a little flat, without the kind of spring I usually prefer.

In terms of ports, the Satellite U845W has an HDMI port, three USB ports and an expandable Ethernet port, as well as a headphone port and a microphone input. It also has an SD card slot.

It does not have a DVD drive. While a lot of newer, thinner laptops are lacking optical disc drives, a drive would be particularly handy with this one — since it’s targeted at movie buffs.

The 14.4-inch, glossy display has a resolution of 1,792 by 768. While I’ve seen more luminous laptop displays, most movies and video clips looked pretty crisp, with good color quality.

I wasn’t able to watch a lot of video content optimized for this sort of screen because it’s just not widely available. I more often watched 16:9 videos, which appeared with black bars on the right and left sides of the screen because of the extra-wide display. This included shows on Hulu, a movie on Netflix and the livestream of President Barack Obama’s convention speech on YouTube.

The only full-screen media I watched was several new movie trailers that were in 21:9 — “The Hobbit,” for one — which were suggested to me by Toshiba. The few clips I found did feel a little more cinematic, but ultimately, I didn’t get a lot of out of the video-watching experience.

I found this laptop to be more useful for browsing multiple Web pages at once. I could snap two browser windows side by side and get a good-sized view of both of them, so I could monitor work email while watching a movie, or see the commentary from Twitter while watching livestreamed videos from the conventions.

Among the standout features of the laptop were its battery life and its speakers. Toshiba says this laptop has a battery life of nine hours; in my test, which involved turning off sleep mode, playing iTunes on a loop and running an email application, all while the display was on full brightness, the battery lasted just under five hours.

This is weaker than the battery life of the MacBook Air, according to our previous tests at AllThingsD, but beats out some other Ultrabooks, including the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, the Dell XPS 13 and the Sony Vaio T13.

And, as with other premium Toshiba laptops, the Satellite U845W comes with two powerful Harman Kardon speakers that offer full, clear sound for both music files and movies.

Despite these features, the Toshiba U845W is still a niche product that, for now, will likely appeal to only true cinephiles or multitaskers.

Don't Browse and Drive

Voices — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:01:31 +0000

Our study of iPod distraction found that selecting a song on an iPod can degrade performance almost twice as much as dialing a cell phone. Even more surprisingly, selecting a song can degrade performance twice as much as watching a video on the iPod.

– Researcher Dario Salvucci, whose work focuses on multitasking and interruption, including driver distraction

Microsoft Windows Phone Head Andy Lees: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:10:34 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next two weeks, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Andy Lees, president of the Microsoft’s Windows Phone division.

As such — and coming from way behind, compared to smartphone leaders Google with Android, and Apple with iOS, iPhone and iPad — Lees is working to extend Microsoft’s longtime desktop hegemony to mobile.

It’s a great time to watch the full onstage conversation between Lees and AllThingsD’s Ina Fried, since Microsoft is holding a big event in New York on Monday to celebrate the U.S. launch of devices running the new Mango version of Windows Phone 7.

The update, which features Twitter integration, multitasking and other features, has already been available for older devices; new models, with the operating system preloaded, are just hitting the market.

Here’s the Lees interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

Sonos' John MacFarlane Talks About New Android Music Controller Rolling Out Today and More!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:00:01 +0000

Yesterday afternoon, BoomTown pumped Sonos CEO John MacFarlane full of fancy tea and queried him about today’s rollout of its new Android controller for the innovative wireless music players.

As has been previously reported, the Santa Barbara, Calif. consumer electronics company will finally be launching an app for the Google mobile operating system.

Sonos will also be releasing a free software update for its software to make it easier to play Apple AirPlay music sources, as well as offer multitasking for the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone.

Until now, Sonos has been boosted by its Apple app that allows you to control its various players wirelessly with a smartphone or tablet.

The impact of the iPhone and the iPad on sales of its various devices has been clear enough, with just under one million sold. But the move to Android is key given the explosive growth of the mobile platform.

Here’s the video interview I did with MacFarlane, as well as an image of the app on an Android phone:

[ See post to watch video ]

With Update Delays, Can Windows Phone Gain Ground on Google, Apple?

Ina Fried — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:00:59 +0000

In the time since Microsoft released the first version of Windows Phone 7 last fall, Apple has managed to roll out a new version of the iPad as well as two updates to the operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad. Google has introduced both Gingerbread for Android phones and Honeycomb for Android tablets.

In that same time, Redmond has been struggling to get out just one rather modest feature update.

The update, originally planned for January, adds copy and paste features, along with improved marketplace search and various performance updates. After some delay, Microsoft has released the software for those that have phones not tied to a carrier and has started the process of offering it up to Windows Phones on some carriers.

Among the challenges for Microsoft was that it decided along the way that it needed to do a preliminary update to prepare devices for future updates. To complicate things further, that software update also ran into some problems, particularly with one Samsung configuration, forcing Microsoft to halt the update while it solved that issue.

It’s been a bumpy start for a company that is already playing catch-up in the smartphone race.

Despite the bumps, though, those close to the Windows Phone team say that the company is not only confident it can release a larger update later this year but might even deliver a surprise or two before that update.

For one thing, the team working to deliver the current set of updates is separate from those working on the broader update due later this year. Microsoft has said that update will include a version of the Internet Explorer 9 browsers, improved multitasking and integration of Twitter into the people hub. However, the company has also said that those are just a few of the planned updates.

Nonetheless, Microsoft’s list of promised features leaves some notable gaps between what is part of Windows Phone 7 and what is featured on Android and the iPhone, including things such as visual voice mail, video chat and the ability to act as a portable hot spot. Some or all of these features, of course, could be among those that Microsoft is working on but has yet to announce.

Microsoft hasn’t been more specific on timing, but the company clearly wants the software broadly delivered on new phones and as updates to existing models this year. Simply finalizing the code by the end of December is not what it has in mind and things remain on track, sources said.

And of course, Microsoft also managed to do something else this year–something far more important to the future of Windows Phone than copy or paste. It beat out Google’s Android to secure a spot as the future smartphone operating system at Nokia.

Reflecting that, IDC on Tuesday issued a smartphone forecast with a far rosier outlook for Windows Phone than it had a year earlier. The market researcher now forecasts that Windows Phone will command 20 percent of the smartphone market by 2015, more than either Research In Motion or Apple.

Microsoft senior product manager Greg Sullivan acknowledged the bumps, but said that the company has committed to creating a system in which it handles the updates, ensuring they are delievered to all devices–a claim the Android camp can’t make.

“Having a Windows Phone means you will have all of the capabilities,” Sullivan told Mobilized on Tuesday.

That said, Sullivan said Microsoft is well aware it is still playing catch-up and can’t afford to slow down. “We certainly understand that it is a fast-moving market and we will be able to accelerate the delivery of new capability and innovation on our platform.”

Analyst Sees BlackBerry PlayBook Buzz Building Ahead of Rumored April Launch

John Paczkowski — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:05:26 +0000

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook doesn’t yet have a firm price or launch date–though new rumors suggest it may arrive at market by mid-April–but already there is developing demand for it–according to some analysts, anyway.

In a research note issued this morning, Peter Misek of Jeffries said early indications from retailers and others point toward pent-up demand for the device. “We were optimistic about the PlayBook but were still surprised at how positive the feedback has been from the channel and retailers regarding the product,” he writes. “Many view the tethering as a positive since it does not require a separate data plan, and enterprises see it as an easy fit into their existing security and device management protocols.”

Misek, too, expects the PlayBook to launch in April. And he doesn’t seem much bothered by predictions that it will be “dead on arrival.” The PlayBook isn’t going to be a flop, he said. And there are four reasons why:

It’s effectively a PC category player. Therefore any sales are incremental and importantly create new avenues of growth and expansion.
It’s been a success with enterprises that have trialed it.
Its lack of native calendar and email applications isn’t the deficit that it’s been made out to be, since accessing those functions from a browser as one might do on a PC is logical and easy.
It will account for far less than 10 percent of sales and earnings in even the most optimistic models on the Street.

Plausible reasons, certainly. But ones potentially subsumed by a few remaining wild cards Misek doesn’t note: price (not specified beyond RIM’s co-CEO’s claim of “under $500″), battery life (also not yet specified), the size of the PlayBook’s app ecosystem (will it support Android apps?) and the breadth of its distribution channel.

Microsoft to Add Multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone Later this Year

Ina Fried — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:00:42 +0000

Microsoft announced on Monday plans to fill in some of the key gaps from the initial Windows Phone 7 release with two updates due out this year.

The more interesting of the updates is the second one–a major release–due later this year. In a Mobile World Congress keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer plans to demo only a couple of features of the release, including improved multitasking, simultaneous game play with an Xbox as well as the addition of the company’s Internet Explorer 9 browser.

An earlier update, now due out by March, brings the long-awaited copy-and-paste features to the operating system as well as some performance tweaks and support for CDMA networks.

Windows Phone unit President Andy Lees told Mobilized that the new release later this year should answer critics who worried that Microsoft wouldn’t be able to innovate fast enough to catch up or leapfrog over features available on rivals such as iPhone and Android.

[ See post to watch video ]

“Part of what we are doing is sharing technology across the company,” Lees said in an interview. In other examples, Microsoft is showing a demo of how a user on the phone might play a game throwing balls at someone playing with an Xbox or Kinect. Microsoft also plans to allow sharing of Office documents directly between phones, Windows PCs and the cloud-based Windows Live service.

Moving the full IE9 browser over to the phone will allow for hardware acceleration and other features that had not been possible on phones in the past, Lees said. For battery and other reasons, Lees said that the new release won’t support Adobe’s Flash, but Lees said it is not a religious issue for him, and that the company may add such support down the road.

“We’re not allergic to Flash,” Lees said. “It’s not in this update, but we’re not making some particular statement that it will never be there.”

Microsoft also plans to announce that it will integrate Twitter into the People hub in much the same way that the initial release brings in Facebook updates.

The update later this year will be the one adopted by Nokia in its first Windows Phone, Lees said. Nokia announced last week, of course, that it plans to make Windows Phone its primary smartphone operating system going forward.

As for early reaction to the Nokia move, Lees said the response has been positive, both from mobile operators as well as from phone makers, even those that now find themselves with a new competitor.

Lees said that basically all of the companies that make Windows Phone devices also make phones for Android and have plenty of competition there as well. Lees said that, if anything, Nokia’s move could spur some device makers that were on the fence about supporting Windows Phone 7.

“We have had other [phone makers] approach us who were talking to us and have now increased their, should I say, level of focus,” Lees said.

As for Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s comments that the amount of money flowing to Nokia from Microsoft is measured in billions rather than in millions, Lees said that one must consider that the deal includes partnerships around search and services as well as the amount of marketing and other support being directly provided by Microsoft.

“We’re not talking about specifics,” Lees said. “But it’s a sizeable opportunity.”

Update: 4:00 pm Barcelona time: I finally made it in after being stuck in a massive crowd (see image). Ballmer’s keynote is slated to begin shortly and I’ll add live updates shortly.

4:06 pm: Ballmer has taken the stage, talking about rapid pace of change in industry and for Microsoft.

Talks about first update, the copy and paste one, which will come in first two weeks of March.

4:09 pm: Ballmer said most of smartphone competition the same–a “sea of icons” that lead to applications that lead to actions. Windows Phone is easier and simpler, he said. “With Windows Phone it’s easier to see information at a glance,” Ballmer said.

4:12 pm: On to new stuff, in the “near future in 2011, we will bring multitasking to Windows Phones” Ballmer said.

Ballmer is talking IE9. “We need to give people the full Web on their phone, like we do on the PC,” Ballmer said. (Wouldn’t that also include Flash, Mobilized wonders?)

4:15 pm: Apps are great, Ballmer said, but not enough. “It’s often too hard to find what you want when you want it,” he said. That, he said, is why Windows Phone also has task-specific hubs like People, Pictures, Office, Music and Video.

4:16 pm: Interesting note, Ballmer has again touted 93 percent customer satisfaction number, but no new sales figure.

4:19 pm: Windows Phone exec Joe Belfiore comes onstage to demo the new features coming to Windows Phone later this year.

4:26 pm: Both updates will be available for all Windows Phone 7 owners, Belfiore said.

4:30 pm: Belfiore showing an IE9 demo highlighting its hardware acceleration feature. In the demo, Belfiore shows IE9 for Windows Phone allowing 50 fish to rapidly swim around in an aquarium demo. He then shows the same demo on an iPhone 4 with the fish barely swimming.

4:32 pm: A few demoes fail. Streaming video doesn’t work because of connection issues. “This is preliminary not final code,” Belfiore said. “We’ll get all these kinks worked out.”

On to multitasking…

4:36 pm: Press-and-hold back button lets users access the new multitasking and see tiles for recently run apps.

Also shows Slacker playing with other tasks. Until now, only Microsoft’s own Zune could play in the background, not third-party apps.

4:39 pm: Last demo is the Xbox one showing Kinect game being played with the phone. Shows a “tech preview” of Windows Phone being used as a companion in Kinect’s dodgeball/breakout game.

4:42 pm: Ballmer back and talking about the ecosystems and Microsoft’s interaction with device makers and mobile operators as well as growth in the number of mobile apps for Windows Phone 7.

“We’re off to a strong start,” he said. “We know we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Ballmer said the company knows it needs both scale and variety.

4:44 pm: Now he’s talking Microsoft-Nokia deal.

4:47 pm: Ballmer invites out Nokia CEO Stephen Elop,

Elop calls the deal “a natural partnership,” in which Nokia will bring the global reach and scale that Microsoft needs, while giving Nokia a needed in back to the North American market, where it has struggled badly.

Elop repeats now well-worn point that Microsoft-Nokia will offer mobile operators a third viable choice to iPhone and Android.

4:51 pm: Ballmer makes the same point Lees made in our interview, arguing that the Nokia deal will even help other Windows Phone device makers by giving the ecosystem a needed level of scale.

“Today, customers are falling in love with Windows phones,” Ballmer said, adding that the company is investing to further popularize the phone, including new features.

What's Better Than One Screen? Two! Sprint Unveils Kyocera Echo.

Tricia Duryee — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:57:40 +0000

Ahead of Apple’s iPhone launch on Verizon later this week, Sprint unveiled the Kyocera Echo, a dual-touchscreen smartphone. The Android phone, which looks a lot like a Nintendo DS, is being positioned against tablets because of better multitasking capabilities. It allows people to watch videos on one display while browsing on another. The Echo will be available this spring for $200 with a new contract. Monthly plans start at $80 for unlimited text, talk and data.

BlackBerry PlayBook: Looks Good on Paper, But…

John Paczkowski — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:50:20 +0000

The PlayBook’s hardware specs might beat anything on the market, its QNX OS might be rock solid and its “Web fidelity” might outshine that of the iPad, but Research in Motion’s forthcoming “professional tablet” will be poorly received when it finally ships. This according to Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair, who believes the device to be signifigantly flawed and claims it will be “dead on arrival.”

A scathing appraisal, but Blair has his reasons.

The PlayBook’s lack of native calendar and email applications, a core RIM strength that has oddly been left out of the device’s first iteration.
The need to tether it to a BlackBerry to access those applications, a feature intended to appeal to enterprise by obviating the need for additional security measures, but one that will inevitably alientate non-BlackBerry users.
A profound lack of applications and a sub-par application storefront.
No easy mechanism for content delivery and consumption. “How will users get music or movies on there?” Blair asks. “Through the BlackBerry Desktop download manager? Well, we have tried this and it isn’t easy.”

(Considered drag-and-drop, Brian? Not the most elegant solution, I know, but a solution nonetheless).

These are the makings of a sharply inferior tablet, Blair argues. To launch it in a market alongside the likes of the iPad and its successor, as well as with forthcoming offerings from HP’s Palm unit and Motorola, is folly.

“The PlayBook demo impresses many people, including many tech writers, and we believe it’s because of the outstanding multitasking capability that is showcased in a coverflow manner,” Blair concludes. “This slickly shows apps running in the background while a main app runs in the foreground. While we agree this is a leap over what other tablet operating systems can do, we see it as a visual ‘smoke and mirrors’ because of the aforementioned shortfalls in getting content onto the device, offering limited applications, and excluding a native email application. In short, the PlayBook’s screen and hardware specs and multitasking capability look excellent on paper, but without the other pieces to the puzzle, it feels in many ways like an expensive web browser.”

Windows Phone 7 Update Is No iPhone Killer

Ina Fried — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:09:42 +0000

Since it is bubble-bursting Wednesday here at Mobilized, let me assure you that the forthcoming update to Windows Phone 7 is neither “massive” nor an iPhone killer, despite some reports to the contrary.

On the other hand, the software update, which could come as early as January, will add two things that are very important for Microsoft. First and foremost, the update will pave the way for Windows Phone 7 devices that work on Sprint and Verizon’s networks. That’s important because Microsoft is already fighting an uphill battle and doesn’t need to lose potential customers just because its phones don’t work on their carrier of choice.

The second key feature is copy and paste. While not the biggest deal for many customers, it is an omission in Windows Phone 7 that early adopters and reporters have given Microsoft plenty of grief about. Adding this feature should end that and put another tick in the feature check box for those comparing Windows Phone 7 side by side with iPhone and Android. (Now it just needs full multitasking, visual voicemail and a couple of other things.)

Officially, Microsoft is saying only that the update is due “in early 2011″ and will be the first of many regular updates to the operating system.

So how is Windows Phone 7 selling? It’s a little early to say definitively. There have been a couple of reports suggesting slow sales, but they are also based on very small data sets. For example, British phone retailer Mobilesplease says it is seeing Windows Phone 7 being outsold 15 to 1 by Android and 3 to 1 by Symbian-based devices. However, those numbers are based on sales data covering just a couple thousand phone sales.

Enthusiast site WMPoweruser tried to suss things out a bit by measuring how many Facebook activations there have been for Windows Phone 7 and came up with a figure of around 135,000. (Facebook support is built in to the operating system, but not all users choose to link their Facebook account to the phone). There’s also the fact that both T-Mobile and AT&T are offering “buy one, get one free” promotions on Windows Phone 7 devices. That could be a bad sign, but this is the holidays and carriers tend to like getting two users in a household and are willing to put some marketing money behind those efforts.

An AT&T spokesman, meanwhile, told Mobilized that the company has been pleased with Windows Phone 7 sales thus far, though neither he nor Microsoft would go into any specifics.

So what does all this mean? It’s hard to say. It’s clearly not a home run, with the phones selling so fast that stores can’t keep them in stock. At the same time, it is probably not the Kin-scale flop that some predicted either. (I know that doesn’t narrow things down too much. If anyone out there has more data, I’m all ears.)

Also of note, as of Wednesday there is one more Windows Phone 7 device to consider during these holidays, though you will have to go online or to one of a handful of Microsoft retail stores to find one. Dell is ready with its previously shown Venue Pro device. The rugged phone, which runs on T-Mobile’s network and features a vertical slide-out keyboard, will come in 8GB and 16GB versions.

The Venue Pro (seen above) is getting the most aggressive pricing of the early Windows Phones, starting at just $99 for the 8GB version when bought along with a new two-year contract. Those upgrading will have to pay $199, while it will sell for $449 without a contract at all. The 16GB version is priced $50 higher in all cases.

New iPhone Keeps Apple Top of Class

Walter S. Mossberg — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:02:18 +0000

Just three years ago, Apple wasn’t in the mobile-phone business at all. Since then, its game-changing iPhone has become the most influential smartphone in the world. Now, on June 24, the company will roll out the fourth generation of the device, called the iPhone 4.

[ See post to watch video ]

While attractive, capable new smartphones emerge regularly from competitors, a new iPhone deserves special attention for two reasons. First, the device lies at the center of a huge ecosystem of 225,000 apps, plus popular related gadgets like Apple’s iPod Touch connected media player and iPad tablet, which collectively are approaching 100 million units sold. Second, the iPhone’s multitouch, gesture-based interface; elegant Web browser; sophisticated music and video playback; and other features have been emulated on many competing devices, so what Apple does affects the whole industry.

I’ve been testing the iPhone 4 for more than a week. In both hardware and software, it is a major leap over its already-excellent predecessor, the iPhone 3GS.

It has some downsides and limitations—most important, the overwhelmed AT&T network in the U.S., which, in my tests, the new phone handled sometimes better and, unfortunately, sometimes worse than its predecessor. I’ll get into that below. But, overall, Apple (AAPL) has delivered a big, well-designed update that, in my view, keeps it in the lead in the smartphone wars.

The iPhone 4 is a dramatic redesign. It manages to pack a radically sharper screen; a second, front-facing camera; a larger battery; a better rear camera with flash; and a faster processor into a body that is 24% thinner, a bit narrower, and retains the same length and weight as its predecessor’s. In fact, Apple claims that the iPhone 4 is the world’s thinnest smartphone and sports the world’s highest-resolution smartphone screen.

With the front-facing camera, and clever new software called FaceTime, Apple has brought simple, high-quality video calling to mobile phones, albeit, for now, only over Wi-Fi and only among iPhone 4 owners. In multiple tests, this feature worked very well for me and is a classic example of the value of having one company do integrated hardware and software.

In addition, the iPhone now includes an updated operating system—which also can be installed free on the prior model—that introduces catch-up software features such as limited multitasking (the ability to run apps simultaneously); folders for grouping related apps; and, for email, a unified inbox for multiple accounts and the ability to present messages as threaded conversations. This software is called iOS4.

The iPhone 4 will cost the same as the iPhone 3GS: $199 for a model with 16 gigabytes of memory and $299 for 32 gigabytes, with a two-year contract from AT&T (T). The 3GS model will drop to $99 with a two-year contract and 8 gigabytes of memory.

Design

Physically, the iPhone 4 is attractive and feels great in the hand. Even the back is now clad in glass, which Apple claims is a superstrong variety 30 times tougher than plastic. I dropped it several times from a few feet onto a hard surface with no problem, and it acquired no scratches at all in my testing, even though I didn’t use a case or coddle it.

Although it is the same weight as its predecessor, the iPhone 4 feels denser and tighter—more like a fine possession than a disposable gadget. It still looks like an iPhone, but it manages to make the 3GS appear bulbous by comparison.

While its 3.5-inch screen, once considered huge, is now smaller than those on some other smartphones, the high resolution packs in a lot of material and makes text appear almost like ink on fine paper. The software is simply richer looking and smoother to use than on competing phones I’ve tested, with fewer confusing menus and settings, and far more apps.

Screen, Voice, Battery and Camera

Always brilliant at marketing, Apple has dubbed its new screen the “Retina display.” At a resolution of 960×640, it has four times the pixels of its predecessor and displays a whopping 326 pixels per inch. I don’t know how it compares with the human retina, but I do know that, just as Apple claims, text on the screen shows no jagged lines, even when expanded to giant size.

Voice quality was quite good, even on long speaker-phone calls, and data performance over Wi-Fi was excellent. Video and audio streamed from the Web played smoothly.

Apple claims longer battery life for most functions—seven hours of talk time, for instance, versus five hours on the earlier model. I didn’t perform a precise battery test, but, even in heavy use, the iPhone 4′s battery never reached the red zone on a single day of my tests.

The new rear camera is another big plus. My test pictures came out sharp and clear, even in low light and close-up situations. It isn’t the best cellphone camera I’ve tested, but it is a big improvement.

The iPhone 4 records video in high definition and, in my tests, these videos came out very well in most conditions. Apple also is selling for $5 an iPhone version of its Macintosh video-editing program, iMovie, for editing the videos.

FaceTime

Video calling is one of this device’s best features. As noted, it currently requires an iPhone 4 and Wi-Fi connection on both ends, though Apple says it is making the technology free to others and hopes to have millions of compatible devices. There is no setup and nothing to learn. You just press a FaceTime button, and if the other person accepts the invitation to talk face to face, his or her image appears, with your own image showing in a small corner window.

You can tap an icon on the screen to swap the front camera for the rear one, so you can show your caller around the room, or include other people near you who are behind the phone.

You can even begin a video call as an audio cellular call, push a button, and switch it to a Wi-Fi FaceTime call. It worked great for me, except for a couple of brief freeze-ups.

Multitasking

After years of complaints, Apple finally has brought multitasking to the iPhone. But it has done so in a limited way that won’t please everyone. On the iPhone 4, multitasking doesn’t mean every app can work fully in the background. To prevent a disastrous drain on battery life, Apple has allowed only certain apps to fully multitask. These include streaming audio services like Pandora, which keep playing music from the Web while you do other things, and voice-prompted navigation apps, which keep working while you’re on a call. Others that fully work in the background include Internet calling apps, and those that perform long downloads.

But some logical candidates, such as Twitter and Facebook, merely pause in place when you switch away from them. You can get back to them quickly, and they update more rapidly than before, but they don’t constantly update in the background. They only wake up in the background if you have set them to notify you of an update, and then only for a limited time. Apple says constant fetching of hundreds of social-networking updates in the background would kill the battery too quickly.

In fact, for many scenarios, such as games, Apple’s version of multitasking is really just fast switching among open apps that save their place. And, even to achieve this, the apps must be updated. For some users, this limited version of multitasking will be a disappointment.

To use multitasking you just press the iPhone’s home button twice and a row of icons representing running apps appears. Click on the one you want and, if it has been updated for the new operating system, it will appear just as you left it.

Multitasking also will work on updated iPhone 3GS models, but not on models older than that.

Folders

Because iPhone users can easily accumulate hundreds of apps, it can become difficult to organize them. So the new iPhone OS now allows you to group them into folders. For instance, I grabbed the icon for The Wall Street Journal app, dragged it on top of the one for the Washington Post app, and a folder was instantly created called “News,” based on the apps’ built-in categories. You can change the name to anything you like, or alter or disassemble the folders.

The Big Downside

The most important downside of the iPhone 4 is that, in the U.S., it’s shackled to AT&T, which not only still operates a network that has trouble connecting and maintaining calls in many cities, but now has abandoned unlimited, flat-rate data plans. Apple needs a second network.

Both Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) told me they worked to make the iPhone 4 do a better job with AT&T’s network. For example, the phone itself is surrounded by a prominent stainless-steel trim piece that acts as a large antenna. And Apple said it also tuned the phone to try to grab whatever band on the network was less congested or less affected by interference—to stress the quality of a signal over its raw strength. AT&T said it, too, made some changes to its network with the new iPhone in mind.

But, in my tests, network reception was a mixed bag. Compared with the previous model, the new iPhone dropped marginally fewer calls made in my car, both in Washington and in Boston, and was much louder and clearer over my car’s built-in Bluetooth speaker-phone system.

Yet, in some places where the signal was relatively weak, the iPhone 4 showed no bars, or fewer bars than its predecessor. Apple says that this is a bug it plans to fix, and that it has to do with the way the bars are presented, not the actual ability to make a call. And, in fact, in nearly all of these cases, the iPhone 4 was able to place calls despite the lack of bars.

However, on at least six occasions during my tests, the new iPhone was either reporting “no service” or searching for a network while the old one, held in my other hand, was showing at least a couple of bars. Neither Apple nor AT&T could explain this. The iPhone 4 quickly recovered in these situations, showing service after a few seconds, but it was still troubling.

Just as with its predecessors, I can’t recommend this new iPhone for voice calling for people who experience poor AT&T reception, unless they are willing to carry a second phone on a network that works better for them.

For everyone else, however, I’d say that Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class.

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

More iPhone 4 Coverage »

Apple Unleashes iOS 4

John Paczkowski — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:00:39 +0000

As promised, Apple (AAPL) released iOS 4 this morning, setting the stage for the Thursday launch of iPhone 4. The update, available for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch, brings a number of new features to the devices, among them, multitasking, a unified email inbox and support for app folders. Rolled out along with it: iBooks for iPhone and iPod touch. There are good overviews of iOS 4 at MacWorld and Ars Technica.

Read Walt Mossberg’s iPhone 4 Review »

IPhone 4: Thanks for the Memory

John Paczkowski — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:25:29 +0000

Here is a good explanation for why the forthcoming iMovie app from Apple (AAPL) will run on the iPhone 4, but not on its predecessor, the 3GS: The new model has double the memory. Video of a Worldwide Developers Conference session released Thursday confirms rumors that the device is packing 512MB of RAM (see image above; click to enlarge).

That’s twice the RAM of the iPad, which, like the new phone, sports a 1GHz Apple A4 processor. This means iPhone 4 buyers can expect some impressive performance gains over the 3G and 3GS.

“This is really about allowing [iOS 4's] limited multitasking to actually have a robust performance,” Rapid Repair CEO Aaron Vronko told Computerworld. “With only 256MB, the iPhone would waste a lot of time and battery power managing memory [during multitasking]. This definitely helps, and will let you keep more apps in the background without affecting battery life.”

[Image Credit: AppleInsider]

Kara, Walt and Katie Visit iPhone 4-Palooza at WWDC–With Special Guest Stars Schiller, Pincus and More!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:37:16 +0000

Earlier today, BoomTown hoofed it to downtown San Francisco to join a pair of All Things Digital A-Team members–Walt Mossberg and Katie Boehret–at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the newest version of the iconic mobile device, iPhone 4.

As usual, I had to snark it up with a video of the proceedings at Moscone Center West, where over 5,000 of the Apple (AAPL) faithful gathered to kibitz and ogle.

Cue the excessive oohing and aahing.

A very playful Jobs–who even handled a networking connection snafu with unusual restraint–gave them a lot to talk about, from the iPhone 4′s FaceTime video chat to its squarish, stainless-steel-and-glass new design to multitasking to an even crisper screen called Retina Display.

(Memo to Katie Cotton: Is the iBall the next secret Apple project? Because Retina Display, frankly, sounds a little too much like the corrective LASIK eye surgery I have been avoiding.)

Also on the menu: Some more info about iAds, which is competing with Google (GOOG) in the nascent but fast-growing mobile advertising market.

Jobs threw in a few light jabs at the Silicon Valley search giant, although it was pretty tame overall.

Interestingly, I was just at the same venue for Google’s I/O developers event a few weeks ago, where that company was showing off cool new features for its Android mobile operating system, all while dissing Apple.

In any case, like that one, it was another big day for the smartphone market and users, as Apple tossed off its newest innovations. Presumably, the ball is now in Google’s court.

Until Google swings back, here’s my video, including interviews with top Apple execs Phil Schiller and Katie Cotton, as well as Zynga’s Mark Pincus, who demoed a new iPhone version of the start-up’s FarmVille online game:

[ See post to watch video ]

You can check out the entire video of Steve Jobs being interviewed a week ago at our eighth D: All Things Digital conference here.

iPhone OS 4TW?

Nitrozac and Snaggy — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:00:57 +0000

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site. (Click on the image to see a bigger version.)

With iPhone OS 4, Apple Joins the Multitasking Party

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:12:36 +0000

Since the launch of the iPhone’s competitors, the most valid claim for operating system superiority has been the iPhone’s lack of multitasking. Both Palm’s (PALM) webOS and Google’s (GOOG) Android have offered such functionality from the start.

Apple’s main concern about multitasking has always been its negative effect on battery life. But this morning, noting that “we weren’t the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best,” Steve Jobs announced that iPhone OS 4 will, indeed, offer multitasking.

No real specifics yet on how the company overcame the power issue, but SVP of Software Scott Forstall took the stage to talk about seven multitasking services that will be available to developers:

Background audio streaming
Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)
Background location
Push notifications
Local notifications
Task completion
Fast app switching

Jobs noted that multitasking will be available only for the iPhone 3GS, third-generation iPod touch and iPad.

The Answers to Your Questions About the iPad

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:05:14 +0000

Since my review of the new Apple iPad tablet last week, I have been bombarded with questions. This is natural. The iPad is a real computer that overlaps many functions of a laptop, but works very differently from one.

So here are answers to some of the most common questions I’ve received, in hopes they may help clear up any confusion. One caveat: Apple is offering a “sneak preview” on Thursday of a forthcoming revision to the iPhone operating system, which powers the iPad, so some changes might be revealed.

[ See post to watch video ]

Can you print from an iPad? Apple (AAPL) didn’t build in a printing function, so you can’t just tap a menu button to print an email, photo or Web page. But a few third-party apps allow printing of some items from an iPad to a networked printer. One is Print Online. It costs $5 and I tested it successfully. But these apps are complicated and limited workarounds—inadequate substitutes for built-in printing.

The iPad lacks a USB port, so how do you get files into it? Like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad has the familiar Apple connector port and comes with a cable that links this port to a USB port on a PC or Mac. Then, using iTunes on the PC or Mac, you can sync over to the device your songs, photos, videos, contacts, apps and more.

New to the latest version of iTunes is a function that will also transfer to the iPad files like Microsoft Office documents. But this feature only works if you’ve installed on your iPad certain programs that can edit these documents, such as Apple’s optional $10 word-processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs. Documents can be moved in the other direction, too.

You also can get some types of documents into the iPad wirelessly, if you receive them as email attachments or as downloads from the Web. For example, if you receive a Word-document attachment, and you have Apple’s Pages word processor installed, you can send it to Pages, where it can be stored and edited. Pages can then send back the edited version.

Is there a way to type on the iPad without laying it flat and using the virtual keyboard? There are several. Apple sells a $39 case that bends to angle the device in a more convenient typing position (and allows for hands-free video watching). The company also sells a $69 accessory physical keyboard that features a dock at the rear to hold the iPad upright. In addition, you can type on the iPad using Apple’s $69 wireless keyboard for the Mac, which can be held on your lap.

Can I run Windows or Mac programs on the iPad? Not unless their makers produce iPad versions of these programs. The iPad doesn’t run the Macintosh or Windows operating systems, so it can’t run programs designed for them. It runs the iPhone operating system, which is only compatible with iPhone and iPad apps, of which there are more than 150,000. There are some iPad and iPhone apps that let you remotely control Windows and Mac computers, so you could indirectly run Windows and Mac programs via the screen of an iPad, but that isn’t like running the programs locally.

I hear the iPad lacks multitasking. What are the downsides of this? First, let me clarify that the iPad (and iPhone) can technically perform multitasking, or running more than one program at once. But Apple has chosen to limit this ability to some of its own built-in apps, and deny it to third-party apps. For instance, the built-in email program will continue to receive messages while you are watching a movie on the built-in video player.

The downsides of denying multitasking to all apps are considerable. For example, you can’t listen to streaming music from the Pandora music app while checking email. And you can’t view fresh Twitter posts while on other apps. You have to close the app you’re in, then re-launch a Twitter app and wait for it to fetch the new posts. And, you can’t, say, check email or surf the Web while waiting for a complex game to load in the background, because the game stops once you change to another app.

Since the iPad’s battery is sealed in, how do I replace it? The battery isn’t designed to be replaceable by the user. Apple will replace your iPad with one containing a fresh battery for $107, including shipping. The process takes up to a week. Most important, you will lose all your personal data unless you back it up regularly to your computer and restore it on the replacement iPad. Details are at: apple.com/support/ipad/service/battery/.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free of charge, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com.

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

More iPad Coverage »

Apple’s iPhone OS Sneak Peek: Multitasking, Better Games and a Mobile Advertising Platform

John Paczkowski — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:51:54 +0000

With the iPad launch behind it, Apple is gearing up to introduce a new version of its iPhone OS. At a special event Thursday morning, the company will give us a sneak peek at the new operating system, and while it’s impossible to say for certain just what features it will include, analysts seem confident that multitasking for third-party applications will be one of them.

“Our sources indicate that a key feature of the forthcoming iPhone 4.0 software will be a full multi-tasking environment where third-party apps will also be able to be run simultaneously and/or in the background along with AAPL’s own apps,” says Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, who notes that such functionality is a necessity now that the iPad has arrived.

“While we believe this is an improvement for all iPhone and iPod touch users,” Wu adds, “we believe this will be particularly important for the iPad, due to its much faster processor and much larger screen where users will more likely want the capability to run multiple applications much like most do with their PCs and Macs.”

The upshot, according to Wu: “We believe this will allow Apple to deliver a fuller and more differentiated experience on the iPad helping drive greater adoption.”

Seems a reasonable prediction. Certainly, multitasking for non-Apple applications has been something iPhone and iPod touch users have wanted for quite some time. With the iPad–Apple’s third iPhone OS device–at market, now may be the time to roll it out.

Beyond this, Wu sees a few other important announcements coming out of the Apple (AAPL) event–one, perhaps, related to more powerful and sophisticated games and another related to a mobile advertising API.

Says Wu: “With its growing focus on mobile devices and the apps platform, we believe Apple will eventually integrate an advertising platform into the iPhone SDK. In Jan-10, Apple acquired Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company. With just 4 months to integrate Quattro’s mobile platform into the SDK, there is a chance the service is not completely ready for launch, but we believe it is likely that Apple will announce it at the 4/8 event.”

Apple Announces April 8 iPhone OS Event

John Paczkowski — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:00:55 +0000

April is proving to be a big month for Apple. First the launch of the iPad and now, just two days later, the announcement of an invitation-only event to show off the next generation of the operating system that it will soon run, iPhone OS 4. The event is scheduled for April 8–three days from now–at Apple’s town hall.

Apple (AAPL) has been rumored to be adding some form of multitasking support for third-party apps in the next iteration of the OS. Perhaps we’ll hear something about it come Thursday.

An iPad Review Roundup

John Paczkowski — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:31:54 +0000

A handful of iPad reviews published online moments ago and they’re largely positive–with some expected caveats about its lack of a camera and support for Flash and multitasking. Consensus seems to be that Apple (AAPL) has a great shot at creating a new category of device with the iPad.

Interestingly, a number of reviews make special mention of its speed (Walt Mossberg describes it as “wicked fast”), a battery life that exceeds Apple’s claims (David Pogue says the battery on his review device lasted 12 hours on a single charge–two hours more than Apple promised), and Apple’s hopes for 1,000 specially designed iPad apps to be available by launch this Saturday.

Below, excerpts from eight of those early reviews.

I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades. But first, it will have to prove that it really can replace the laptop or netbook for enough common tasks, enough of the time, to make it a viable alternative.

– Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal

The first iPad is a winner. It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival for Amazon’s Kindle. It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money. At the very least, the iPad will likely drum up mass-market interest in tablet computing in ways that longtime tablet visionary and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could only dream of.

– Ed Baig, USA Today

No company can generate as much hype around a product launch as Apple. But that’s perfectly OK because no company is also nearly as successful at producing a new product that can justify almost any level of excitement that precedes it. They don’t do it with every product launch, but bloody hell: they’ve done it with the iPad….The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you’re completely focused on the task at hand…whether it’s reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It’s not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.

– Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun Times

The techies are right about another thing: the iPad is not a laptop. It’s not nearly as good for creating stuff. On the other hand, it’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it–books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience–and a deeply satisfying one. The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine. The only question is: Do you like the concept?

– David Pogue, New York Times

Is the iPad a perfect product? No. And the omissions will give the anti-Apple crowd plenty of ammo. Why do I need this extra device that’s not a full-fledged laptop? Where’s the camera? What about Flash? Um, how about multitasking? These are all valid complaints, but one thing I can say about most Apple products, and certainly the iPad: There may be things it doesn’t do, but what it does do, it does remarkably well. Aside from the aforementioned limitations, there isn’t a lot else to gripe about. And to my great surprise, you can actually get real work done with the iPad.

– Tim Gideon, PCMag

Manic, nonstop use revealed a number of things: battery life is better than I anticipated. I got a full day of constant internet-connected use (it barely left my hands) on one charge. It fits well in my lap when eating, and it’s easy to wipe off stray noodles and arugula leaves and get right back to Twittering….I like it a lot. But it’s the things I never knew it made possible–to be revealed or not in the coming months–that will determine whether I love it.

– Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing

It turns out the iPad isn’t as much a laptop replacement as I thought (though it could easily be used as one). Instead, it’s an entirely new category of mobile device. For example, now when I want to surf the Web from the couch or back deck, the iPad is the device I choose. Starbucks? Same thing. Think of the iPad as a new arrow in your technology quiver, an arrow that will often be the best tool for a given task. I had high expectations for the iPad, and it has met or exceeded most of them.

– Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle

Apple’s engineers know something those other companies don’t: form has trumped function. You can load up a tablet with horsepower and extra features till it can do your taxes and lick the stamp, but if it’s not instantly obvious how to use those features without a manual–and if you don’t look good using them–nobody cares. The iPad isn’t wildly feature-rich. It doesn’t run Flash, and the only browser it runs is Safari. Like the iPhone, it can’t multitask, and it doesn’t appear to have a serious file-handling system. I’ve tried its much ballyhooed full-size virtual keyboard, and it feels like typing with frostbite. It doesn’t even have a damn camera. But you will care about it, because whoever designed its graceful lines and intuitive interface cared about you.

– Lev Grossman, Time

Apple: iPhone OS 4.0 Reportedly to Include Multitasking

Eric Savitz — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:00:58 +0000

Apple (AAPL) plans to offer a “full-on solution” for multitasking in version 4.0 of the iPhone OS, according to AppleInsider. An inability to run more than one application at a time is one of the most frequent criticisms of the iPhone OS–and the ability to multitask is often touted as a point of differentiation by rival handset makers. The new version of the iPhone OS is expected to launch this summer.

The story is attributed to “people with a proven track record in predicting Apple’s technological advances.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein: I've Never Used an iPhone

John Paczkowski — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:52:53 +0000

If CES 2009 marked Palm’s rise-from-the-ashes rebirth, CES 2010 may well be the beginning of its resurgence, the inflection point at which the company really begins to gain traction in a market that nearly left it behind just two years ago.

“I think we’ve done really well this past year,” Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said during an interview with All Things Digital‘s Kara Swisher at the Consumer Electronics Show.

[ See post to watch video ]

Video clip: Highlights from Jon Rubinstein’s interview.

“We told everyone what our plans were and we really executed on those,” he continued, adding, “we said we’d deliver the Pre in the first half and launched it in June. We said we’d add more carriers and we did that as well….Throughout the year we’ve delivered a lot of over-the-air updates, improving the product, and then we launched the Pixi….I look at the last two years as a transitional period and the year ahead as a transformational one.”

And what of the year ahead? Further improvements, says Rubinstein: “We’re really, really focused on the consumer experience–the simple user interface, multitasking, synergy, seamless messaging applications…the gesture-based interface; these are all things that make our products stronger.”

The conversation shifts to the mobile space and the competition in it. How does Palm (PALM) view Apple (AAPL)?

“We don’t pay that much attention to Apple….I know it sounds really strange,” says Rubinstein.

“Really?” Kara replies. “You don’t worry about the iPhone?”

“No, I really don’t,” Rubinstein answers.

“I don’t believe you,” says Kara, telegraphing a sentiment I imagine is widely held among the audience. Rubinstein is sometimes referred to as “the father of the iPod.” Hard to imagine he doesn’t have at least a passing interest in the evolution of the device he helped create.

Rubinstein: “I don’t have an iPhone. Actually, I’ve never used one.”

[ See post to watch video ]

Video clip: Jon Rubinstein says he’s never used an iPhone.

I think I just heard Palm’s entire PR team groan. If only Kara had an iPhone in her pocket that she could offer Rubinstein–”Come on, touch it.” No such luck, though. Too bad Rep. Joe Wilson’s not in the audience …

Dead end, here. I think.

Kara circles back to the Apple issue, recalling the iTunes synch feature Palm debuted at the All Things D conference last year. At the time, Rubinstein claimed Apple wouldn’t care. But Apple clearly did care. “We don’t think what Apple did is good for their customers,” says Rubinstein. “But Apple’s going to do what Apple’s going to do.”

So why not do your own synching app? Rubinstein says he’d prefer that the developer community create apps like this. Has Palm approached Apple about creating a joint solution? “I don’t really see the point,” he replies.

The conversation shifts to webOS and the developer community. Rubinstein says Palm sees strong interest in its development platform. “I think we have a very large potential developer pool for the product.”

Kara asks about the deal the company announced with Verizon (VZ) yesterday here in Las Vegas. How important is the deal to Palm? “We have high hopes for our partners,” Rubinstein says after a moment. “And we’re investing along with them.”

“What about that deal with AT&T?” Kara asks, noting that the carrier essentially announced it earlier this week

Rubinstein dodges: “We have nothing to announce at this time.”

Kara asks if Palm would like to do a deal with AT&T (T).

“More distribution is better,” says Rubinstein.

“Well, you might want to talk to AT&T, then,” quips Kara. “Sounds like they’re interested.”

One last question from Kara: Will Palm do a tablet?

“We’re a small company,” says Rubinstein. “But we designed webOS to scale and it could be used in different form factors.”

Comeback of the Decade: Reading

Peter Kafka — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:08:41 +0000

Studies say you are watching more TV than ever, even as you slurp up increasing amounts of Web video. Which means you must be spending less time on something else. Like reading, perhaps?

Nope. At least not according to a new study out of the University of California, San Diego, which says reading tripled from 1980 to 2008 “because it is the overwhelmingly preferred way to receive words on the Internet”:

From Wired‘s summary:

Americans consumed 3.6 billion terabytes of information last year, averaging 11.8 hours of information consumption per day. Video and videogames constituted 55 percent of those bytes, but on average, Americans read 36 percent of the 100,500 words they consume each day, according to the San Diego study, which analyzed more than 20 data sources. The study doesn’t cover writing, but a simple glance at Facebook feeds reveals that we’re almost certainly writing more than we used to, as well.

Obligatory “to be sure” graph: To be sure, the study’s definition of “reading” is as broad as possible. So it’s not just talking about grappling with Pynchon, but many less demanding forms of “receiving words” as well. Like skimming this text. Or a text message. Or a tweet. Etc.

Also, there’s a good chance that you’re “reading” while you’re watching TV and maybe watching some Web video at the same time. The UC San Diego study allows for lots of multitasking.

Still, this isn’t bad news, right? As long as you’re reading, you’re reading. And the more you read, the better the chances we’ll avoid an “Idiocracy”-like dystopia.

[Image credit: suchitra prints]

Palm Pixi Needs a Dusting of Speed

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:52:55 +0000

Since the debut of the Palm Pre in June, Palm has talked about the value of the device’s webOS operating system, which offers fast responsiveness, multitasking, universal search and smart synchronization. These features are accessed using delightful multitouch gestures like swiping with a fingertip. So it makes perfect sense that Palm would want to expand its family of products running this great mobile operating system.

[ See post to watch video ]

This week, Palm (PALM) introduced a second device with webOS: the Palm Pixi (palm.com/pixi). This is a stripped-down version of the Pre and it costs $100 (after a $50 instant rebate and a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year service contract) compared with the $150 Pre. Walmart.com is currently selling the Pixi for even less—$50 (http://3.ly/oSE). Both the Pixi and the Pre run on Sprint’s (S) network.

I’ve been testing the Pixi and I’ve found that the physical differences from the Pre are acceptable variations that most people won’t mind and may not even detect. These include a smaller, lower-resolution screen, a two-megapixel camera rather than the Pre’s three-megapixel camera and stationary keyboard instead of one that slides out. The Pixi isn’t as pebble-shaped as the Pre, but its back cover is rounded to fit comfortably in a hand. And like the Pre, it has an eight-gigabyte storage capacity and it’s thin and light enough to forget in a jeans pocket or to comfortably hold up to your ear during phone calls.

The Pixi’s internal changes are much tougher to accept. It lacks Wi-Fi capability and so must rely solely on Sprint’s 3G network for its connection, which I found to be frustratingly slow at times. This littler phone also runs on a weaker processor than the Pre, a decision that Palm says helped cut costs and make the Pixi small. But this processor’s speed is slow enough to notice immediately and it robs webOS of its lightning-fast speed. The Pixi’s progress indicator—a spinning, white circle—appeared on my screen too often.

The $100 Palm Pixi is like a mini version of the Pre. A $70 Touchstone accessory (right) magnetically holds the Pixi as it charges.

Like its super-smartphone competitors, including Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, Research in Motion’s (RIMM) newer BlackBerrys and Google’s (GOOG) Android phones, the Palm Pixi taps into a virtual store from which users can download apps for the device. But Palm’s App Catalog currently holds fewer than 400 apps and roughly 80 of those aren’t yet configured for the Pixi. This means that people who buy the $100 Pixi can choose from just around 300 apps for download, compared with the 100,000 apps available for Apple’s $100 iPhone 3G.

Some apps come preloaded on the Pixi, like Facebook and NFL Mobile Live. I downloaded others, including Pandora radio, Tweed for Twitter and a game called Word Whirl Lite. I logged into my Pandora account and played songs from one of my personalized radio stations while reading through email. A tiny “P” icon at the bottom of the Pixi’s screen notified me that Pandora was running. Other notifiers, like new emails or instant messages, appear at the bottom as well.

If you aren’t familiar with webOS, it’s easy to learn. Functions are designed to be more people-centric rather than program-centric. For example, I can look at a name in Contacts and see how I’m linked to that person—like through Facebook or Google Talk. If I want to start an instant-messaging conversation with that person, I can do so right there rather than opening AIM or Google Talk first to find a person’s name and then initiate conversation. I logged onto the Pixi with a Google account and the device was smart enough to also synchronize data from my Google Talk, Google Calendar and Gmail contacts.

The Card View, a display of all the programs that are simultaneously running at any given time, can be exposed with a simple, upward finger swipe starting below the screen. To close a program, simply touch it with a finger and toss it upward, as if throwing it away. This is one of the most satisfying gestures in webOS. And it’s a good thing, too, because Pixi users will need to use it more often than they did with the Pre. Palm suggests running only seven programs at once for the best performance, rather than the 10 you can leave opened on the Pre.

But my Pixi stuttered with just five programs—sometimes fewer—opened. Simple tasks like opening an email or searching for an app in the App Catalog were painfully slow. I received an email containing one digital photo, and the process of opening just the email—not even the photo—took about 10 seconds. When I finally opened the email and its photo, I saved it to my Pixi and tapped on a menu option to upload it to Facebook. But five minutes later, the spinning progress indicator was still on my Pixi’s screen and I gave up. I tried again and the same thing happened. Finally, on the third try, my photo posted to Facebook.

As was the case for the Palm Pre, the Pixi can be charged by plugging into a normal AC adaptor or by resting it on the Touchstone, a $70 accessory that, with the help of a special back cover that snaps onto the Pixi, magnetically holds this device as it charges. A handful of stylish “Artist Series” back covers will sell on Palm.com for $50 each and will ship in early December.

The Pixi’s 2.6-inch screen has a 320×400 resolution, which is a step down from the Pre’s 3.1-inch, 320×480-resolution screen. Palm estimates the Pixi’s battery lasts for five hours of talk time, the same as the Pre, but for 350 hours of standby time—or 50 more hours than the Pre.

The Palm Pixi’s keyboard is tiny but sufficient. People who are used to BlackBerry or even iPhone keyboards might be irked that the Pixi keyboard doesn’t have built-in shortcuts like holding down a key to capitalize it or pressing the space bar twice to add a period to the end of a sentence.

Like its predecessor, the Pixi has a designated Gesture Area just beneath its screen where users can swipe a fingertip for quickly navigating through screens, like swiping right-to-left to go back a screen. Unlike the Pre, the Pixi doesn’t have a silver button below its screen that immediately takes users to Card View, but I didn’t miss this button.

Though the Palm Pixi is $50 less than the Palm Pre, its downgraded performance doesn’t make that dollar savings worth it.

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Is There Anything We Won't Watch? Web Video Booming, but TV Still Growing, Too.

Peter Kafka — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:30:02 +0000

Plenty of smart folks keep gathering around TV’s grave so that they can throw dirt on it, but it’s not dead yet. In fact, it’s still growing, says Nielsen: More Americans spent more time watching TV this spring than they did a year ago.

The numbers come from Nielsen’s quarterly “Three Screen” report, which measures eyeballs watching video on TV, on the Web and on mobile devices. And just like the report Nielsen put out three months ago, it shows that even while Americans gobble up more online video, they’re still watching as much TV as they ever have. More, even: The number of viewers increased by 0.9 percent, while the time they spent watching TV increased 1.5 percent.

Here’s how the numbers break down (click tables below to enlarge):

Total number of viewers:

Time spent viewing:

Two different theories, which are not mutually exclusive, may explain the ever-increasing amount of video we’re supposedly gorging on:

We’re out of work or underemployed, and we’re filling those hours with sitcoms and dogs-on-skateboard clips.
We’re multitasking and gorging on all of this stuff at the same time.

On that last theory: Nielsen says 57 percent of us are spending at least an hour a month watching Web video and TV at the same time. We’re much more likely to turn on the TV while we’re Web-surfing than vice versa, though.

No surprise, by the way, to see that people are spending more time watching Web video. But interesting to note that while the universe of mobile video watchers has increased, they’re spending less time watching.

For what it’s worth, Nielsen says that short-form clips–like those from Google’s (GOOG) YouTube–make up 83 percent of Web video viewing, while “name-brand TV network content” makes up the majority of mobile video. Note that Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, GE’s (GE) NBC and Disney’s (DIS) ABC, doesn’t have a mobile option, so it can’t claim credit for those eyeballs.

Too many numbers! Time for video. Here’s a clip of the Minnesota Vikings’ (!) Brett Favre from this week’s “Monday Night Football” game. This one has been seen more than half a million times, but there’s no way it’s legal. So it will go down sooner or later–both the NFL and ESPN are pretty zealous about this stuff.

But right now it’s promoted for all to see on YouTube’s homepage. Which means there are still some kinks in the company’s vaunted “ContentID” program.

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