AllThingsD » speed

4G or Not 4G: A Guide to Cut Through All the "Fast" Talk

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:07:26 +0000

Of all the confusing technology terms used in consumer marketing today, perhaps the most opaque is “4G,” used to describe a new, much faster generation of cellular data on smartphones, tablets and other devices. It sounds simple, but there are many varieties of 4G and conflicting claims.

[ See post to watch video ]

AT&T claims “The nation’s largest 4G network,” and T-Mobile says it has “America’s largest 4G network.” Verizon Wireless boasts “America’s fastest 4G network,” and Sprint says it had the first 4G network.

Yet the technology used by T-Mobile, and mostly comprising AT&T’s 4G network, isn’t considered “real” 4G at all by some critics, and the one used by Sprint has proven to be a dead end and is being abandoned. The flavor being used by Verizon is now being adopted by its rivals, but won’t be interoperable among them.

Verizon offers LTE, which is the fastest variety of 4G.

It’s a headache for consumers to grasp. So here’s a simplified explainer to some of the most common questions, based on interviews with top technical officials at all four major U.S. wireless carriers.

What is 4G?

It’s the fourth and latest generation technology for data access over cellular networks. It’s faster and can give networks more capacity than the 3G networks still on most phones. There’s a technical definition, set by a United Nations agency in Europe, and a marketing definition, which is looser, but more relevant to most consumers.

Who needs 4G?

It’s mostly for people with smartphones, tablets and laptops who often need fast data speeds for Web browsing, app use and email when they’re out of the range of Wi-Fi networks. It can give you the same or greater data speeds as home or office Wi-Fi when you’re in a taxi. In hotels and airports, it’s often faster than public Wi-Fi networks.

How does 4G differ from another term being advertised, ‘LTE’?

LTE, which stands for “Long Term Evolution,” is the fastest, most consistent variety of 4G, and the one most technical experts feel hews most closely to the technical standard set by the U.N. In the U.S., it has primarily been deployed by Verizon, which offers it in over 200 markets. AT&T has begun deploying it, offering LTE in 28 markets so far. Sprint and T-Mobile are pivoting to LTE, though they have no cities covered by it yet.

What are these other versions of 4G?

Sprint uses a technology called WiMax. T-Mobile and AT&T deployed a technology called HSPA+, a faster version of 3G that they relabeled as 4G, and which many technical critics regard as a “faux 4G.” Sprint will begin switching to LTE later this year, and T-Mobile in 2013.

Sprint uses a 4G technology called WiMax.

How fast is 4G?

Claims vary and performance depends upon the type of device, location, and time. In my tests, 4G phones, tablets and data modems for laptops typically deliver from three to 20 times the download speeds of 3G devices. The speed king is LTE. The LTE devices I’ve used have typically averaged download speeds of between 10 and 20 megabits per second, with frequent instances of over 30 megabits per second. The other forms of 4G have generally produced download speeds well under 10 mbps in my tests. But all of these are better than 3G, which in my tests on all networks and many devices, averages download speeds of under 2 mbps.

How does LTE compare with common wired home Internet speeds?

Although it is wireless, LTE is often faster than most Americans’ wired home Internet service. According to Akamai, a large Internet company, the average broadband speed in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2011 was a mere 6.1 mbps.

How does LTE compare with Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is usually a wireless broadcast of a wired Internet service, so, if the average U.S. broadband speed is 6.1 mbps, that’s around what the average Wi-Fi speed is. But, in public places, the shared Wi-Fi is often much, much slower than LTE. In tests I did this week at Dulles Airport near Washington, and at a hotel outside Boston, the public Wi-Fi networks delivered well under 1 mbps on the new iPad. But the Verizon LTE cellular network on the iPad averaged over 32 mbps in both places.

T-Mobile and most of AT&T’s network use HSPA+.

Is LTE only faster at downloads? What about uploads?

It’s faster at both than 3G, in my experience.

Will these speeds drop as more people adopt LTE?

Probably, but it’s hard to say by how much, since LTE also offers more capacity, as well as speed. Verizon’s LTE network is believed to be used by less than 10% of its total subscribers.

What does LTE cost?

Prices vary by carrier and device. Verizon and AT&T use tiered pricing, where you pay escalating prices for larger and larger buckets of data. So far, they haven’t raised these prices for LTE, though people with LTE may find they use more data, and thus will need bigger buckets. One example: On the Verizon version of the new LTE iPad, prices range from $20 a month for 1 gigabyte of data to $80 a month for 10 gigabytes.

If I have an LTE phone or tablet, will I use more data faster than if I have 3G?

Quite possibly. The same amount of content, received at the same quality, won’t use more data on LTE than it does on 3G. However, because LTE is so much faster, users may be tempted to download or stream more data, like video, than with 3G. And they may choose to view higher quality video, which uses more data. Also, some apps and websites, sensing the higher LTE speed, will automatically send down larger, higher quality, data files, especially video.

AT&T is starting to roll out LTE.

How does LTE affect voice calls?

It doesn’t. It’s all about data, so far. Voice calls are handled by other, parallel networks. But companies are hoping to move voice traffic to LTE.

What if I have an LTE phone or tablet, but I move into an area without LTE coverage?

On Verizon, you fall back to a 3G network. On AT&T, you fall back to HSPA+, which is a slower 4G network, but still faster than 3G.

Who has the biggest 4G network in the U.S.?

Even if you accept all the carriers’ definitions of 4G, it’s hard to tell. Carriers measure the size of their networks differently — sometimes by the number of people to whom it is theoretically available, and sometimes by the number of cities and markets, which can be defined differently. Verizon has the largest LTE network. Both AT&T and T-Mobile claim the biggest 4G network, but the first has only a limited LTE deployment and the second has none.

Does LTE work overseas?

Yes, but there is less LTE rollout going on overseas than in the U.S. So, in most countries, your shiny new American LTE device may wind up falling back to slower networks.

Will an LTE phone from AT&T work on Verizon, and vice versa?

No. The technology is the same, but the networks use different bands, or frequencies. So, at least today, LTE devices aren’t interoperable among networks.

Email Walt at walt.mossberg@wsj.com.

Users Rip AT&T Data Curbs

Anton Troianovski and Greg Bensinger — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 07:30:06 +0000

Wireless carriers are getting increasingly forceful in their efforts to pitch mobile bandwidth as a scarce, valuable commodity — setting up a battle with consumer groups that support open-Internet rules and longtime customers who treasure their unlimited data plans.

Among U.S. carriers, AT&T Inc. is leading the charge. Its latest scuffle came on Friday, a day after the country’s second-largest wireless company said its 17 million customers who subscribed to unlimited-data plans will see much slower speeds if they exceed a new monthly usage cap.

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Mattebox Photo App: More Than Just Filters

Lauren Goode — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:01:55 +0000

We get it, mobile photo snappers. We’ve seen your Kelvins and your Hefes and your Lomo-fis. We’ve seen your tilt-shifts and your tweets linking to your iPhone photos.

We know there are good reasons why Apple just named Instagram as its iPhone App of the Year.

But what if you’re just a regular camera user looking for a mobile app that mimics the DSLR experience? Then you may want to check out Mattebox, which just became available in the App Store.

The iOS app offers a wide variety of options for setting up your smartphone for smart photo-taking, as well as post-production features for professional-level imagery.

As you can see from some of the images here, the interface shows focal distance (in the upper right-hand corner), which tells users how far or close a subject is; shutter speed is at the bottom of the screen and one-tap white-balancing is at right. The lock on the left indicates that the focus and exposure are locked — so users can adjust their framing but maintain the same settings, if they’d like — and the app uses a slide-down button on the right to take the photo, which feels a little bit more intuitive then moving to the bottom of the phone to snap a shot.

After a user has taken a photo, there are five adjustment controls — white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, and vignette — and a “crop” button within the app. And for filter freaks, there are a handful of those, too, including Faded 35mm, Contrast Lovers, Square and Soft and Red Filter. Plus, a user can save an unlimited number of favorite settings, combined with a filter.

The app’s creator, Chicago-based Ben Syverson (whose previous projects include the Lou Zoom app from rock guitarist Lou Reed), says he created Mattebox to serve as a one-stop app for all photo-shooting and filter needs. The independent software developer says he has about two dozen camera apps on his phone, but felt that none of them gave him the control and simplicity of a plastic camera.

I wouldn’t call Mattebox incredibly simple for most consumers, but for professional or “prosumer” photographers who are used to the settings of a DSLR, it does pack many of those features into a nicely designed app.

One drawback is that there are no explainers within the app for all of the functions, though Syverson points out that there are video tutorials on the Mattebox.net Web site. Another sticking point for some users might be the lack of social-sharing options, which may be worked into a later version.

Mattebox costs $4.99, pricey compared to the free photo apps that are available. But Syverson believes this is a small price to pay for a mobile-phone experience not unlike Lightroom or Aperture, and thinks serious photo-takers won’t care about the cost.

Syverson says his goal is to introduce cloud storage on the Mattebox.net site, to provide seamless sharing and storage options; he’s also planning a version of Mattebox for Mac desktops, and an Aperture plugin.

AT&T's iPhone 4S is Tops for Web Browsing, Verizon's for Hanging Onto Calls

Ina Fried — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:23:30 +0000

Although Apple ships the same iPhone 4S devices to Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, their performance and features differ once they are configured for each network.

On AT&T’s network, for example, the iPhone can talk and surf at the same time — a feature not supported on Verizon and Sprint’s CDMA networks. Other factors, like call quality and service levels, also differ by network.

As for which is best at what, a new study from Metrico Wireless confirms conventional wisdom.

On the data side, the iPhone 4S is fastest on AT&T, in part because Apple supports AT&T’s HSPA+ network, but does not include support for either Verizon’s 4G LTE network or Sprint’s WiMax-based 4G network.

When it comes to making (and then not dropping) calls, Metrico said that Verizon performed best, edging out Sprint and AT&T. Then again, Sprint is the only one still offering unlimited data. So it really comes down to what attributes one is looking for in their iPhone.

As for whether black iPhones are better than white ones, that will have to wait for another day.

Larry Page on Speed: "There Are No Companies That Have Good Slow Decisions"

Peter Kafka — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:47:11 +0000

Here’s the last session of this week’s Google Zeitgeist conference, a thinky/cultural event the company puts on for its big clients and would-be clients. It’s a Q&A with CEO Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, who used to be CEO, until April of this year.

There’s lots of good stuff in here, though I’d advise skipping Page’s introductory comments and heading right to the 16-minute mark, where he and his old adult supervisor field questions. I’d also advise using Danny Sullivan’s liveblog of the event as a reference guide.

Danny and other folks have noted Page’s initial response to a question about Google’s biggest threat (“Google”). But do watch the whole thing, which starts at the 38-minute mark.

After Schmidt praises Page’s direct management style, Page cuts in and gets more direct. Google, he says, has to get faster even as it gets bigger:

One of the interesting things that we’ve noticed is that companies correlate on decision making and speed of decision making. There are basically no companies that have good slow decisions. There are only companies that have good fast decisions. I think that’s also a natural thing as companies get bigger — they tend to slow down decision making. And that’s pretty tragic.

Bonus game for armchair psychologists — check out the body language and vibe as the two men field the first question, about the company’s early history.

If it was a different kind of event, and the two were different kinds of speakers, I would assume this was deadpan shtick. But I’m reasonably sure that it’s not, and at the very least, Page and Schmidt have different memories about Google’s formative years.

DARPA: That's Mach 20, Baby

Kara Swisher — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:50:21 +0000

In an onstage interview at the ninth D: All Things Digital conference in June, Regina Dugan — who is director of the federal government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — riveted the crowd by talking about a plane in development that can fly at a speed of Mach 20.

That would be 13,000 miles per hour, or 20 times the speed of sound.

Now DARPA is trotting out the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 for its second and final launch this morning at 7 am PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

According to the DARPA site, the aircraft will be boosted into the atmosphere via a rocket, and will blast around for 30 minutes. (See the chart below for the info as to how it does so.)

On its first outing, the plane already proved it can maintain Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second. But DARPA also lost contact with the vehicle, which had a controlled landing in the ocean.

The goal of the second flight, said DARPA, “is to validate current assumptions and increase technical understanding of the hypersonic flight regime. More than 20 test assets will collect continuous flight data to achieve this goal.”

Cool.

Here’s a video of the full interview at D9, with DARPA director Dugan talking about the Mach 20 flight and more:

[ See post to watch video ]

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.

Google's Eric Schmidt Shows Off Movie Studio, a Tablet Video-Editing App

Ina Fried — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:58:56 +0000

Google’s Eric Schmidt said that while computers are being criticized for driving humans apart, the opposite is actually taking place as devices are doing work that humans don’t want to.

“Computers are really here to make us happier,” Schmidt said, promising these devices will give people more time with friends and family, not less.

Schmidt, who gave up the CEO role last month, said that nearly all devices will get more interesting when they connect to the Internet. A music player that doesn’t connect to the network isn’t very interesting, he said, perhaps opening the door to the announcement of a long-talked-about, cloud-based Google music service.

The talk is just geting started. Mobilized got a really good seat in the front row, just two seats over from Andy Rubin, and has live updates below.

5:59 pm: Schmidt talking about things phones should be able to do, such as figure out better traffic routes and bridge language barriers. “You really can do magic,” he says, pointing to Google Translate, which lets you speak one language and have a language you don’t speak returned. “That’s done in a twentieth of a second or what have you,” he says.

6:01 pm: Brings out colleague to show an application on “an interesting new device.”

6:03 pm: The device is the Motorola Xoom tablet and the program is “Movie Studio,” an app built from the ground up for creating and editing movies on tablets.

He has a few images and videos from around Barcelona.

He creates a movie onstage and shows how it can easily be shared on YouTube. (This looks like iMovie and Windows Live Movie Maker so far–both of which also let you edit movies and share directly to YouTube.)

6:07 pm: Upload goes slowly, though, as Schmidt notes it is the problem of doing a demo at a mobile network convention where everyone is hammering the networks.

6:09 pm: The goal of many of Google’s products, Schmidt says, is to do tasks quickly so that people can get back to being human. “We ultimately believe that speed matters,” Schmidt says. Google Instant, he says, can save two to five seconds per search.

Search is also becoming more personal. With permission, users can get more information. Next up, he says, is autonomous search as information comes up as one walks or drives, and is driven by location.

“That’s just the beginning of a large number of new apps that use that infrastructure to make a big difference,” Schmidt says.

Schmidt says how much info to share will be up to the user, but those that opt in can get much richer results.

There’s also a trend, he says, to returning more structured data, such as travel.

6:12 pm: Stat time: 120 million people using Chrome, up three times from a year ago.

YouTube revenue doubled in 2010. Now just being able to monetize professional content at a rate that starts to make sense for content partners.

6:18 pm: Computer science can help all kinds of things, Schmidt says. With phones and tablets, “You never forget everything” which is precisely what phones are good at.

If you choose, you can remember the hotels you stayed in and the people you met, etc., “Humans forget,” he says.

Computers are also preventing people from ever getting lost. When I was a boy growing up in Europe “I was always lost,” Schmidt says.

Translation may not prevent war, but should at a minimum increase dialogue, Schmidt says.

6:18 pm: “Even better you are never lonely,” he sats, because computers can point you to nearby friends or connect you to distant ones.

You are never bored, Schmidt says. You are never out of ideas because we can always suggest what you can do next.

Other changes, include the self-driving cars that Google has been working on.

“It’s obvious that cars should drive (themselves),” he says, adding that there will be a “kill switch” in case there are bugs. And it will take time, he says.

“This is coming. It will be decades, I suspect–not a year.”

He also says these innovations will scale to the masses.

“It’s a future for the masses, not the elites,” he says.

6:21 pm: With that, on to Q&A.

6:23 pm: Talking about targeted broadcast quality ads as next frontier.

“Who wants to see an ad that is not relavent to them,” Schmidt says. And that leads to revenue, which Schmidt points out is the whole point of advertising in the first place.

6:24 pm: Question on Android fragmentation saying there is frustration among phone makers and developers.

“We hear some of this,” Schmidt says. “You’ve stated the problem more strongly than I would have, but I will take that as feedback.”

6:26 pm: Question about role of Google in financial services.

Schmidt quips that Larry Page and Sergey Brin periodically suggest that Google issue Google Bucks as its own currency, but Schmidt says he always points out the regulatory issues.

On a serious front, he talks about the power of near-field communications as a means to turn real-world transactions into electronic ones.

“In that are very large businesses,” he says.

(Google built NFC into its Nexus S device.)

6:29 pm: Are you interested in Twitter?

“We love Twitter and I like to tweet,” Schmidt says, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

6:31 pm: Why so many operating systems?

Sometimes these things occur because the teams move so quickly, Schmidt says.

People have been asking when Gingerbread and Honeycomb will come together. Schmidt: You can imagine the follow-on release will start with an “I” and be named after a desert and will combine the best of both, Schmidt says.

These releases occur on roughly a six-month cycle, Schmidt says.

6:33 pm: On Chrome OS, Schmidt says there will be an opportunity to merge that with Android over time, but better to wait for the operating systems to mature and a natural time than to push them together too soon.

6:34 pm: On HTML5, Schmidt imagines that some number of years from now, most apps–mobile and desktop–will be running on HTML5.

6:39 pm: Question on Google’s role in health care.

Phone should be able to, at a minimum, carry medical info. Several percent of queries on Google are health-related.

6:42 pm: Is Facebook with its “Like” button a main competitor?

Today our main competitor is Microsoft. Microsoft has a good product in Bing, he says.

“There’s a couple cases where it might be too good. We discussed that in a blog post.”

They have the cash, the scale and the reach to do good and amazing things.

6:44 pm: On Nokia-Microsoft partnership:

“We would have loved it had they chosen Android,” Schmidt says. “That offer remains open.”

Android would have been a good choice for Nokia, he says.

‘We certainly tried” to get them, he says.

6:46 pm: How do you approach the fact that Android going higher and lower in the market?

Schmidt says that the company tries to show the best in its Nexus line, while putting minimum specifications out there to set the bar for what developers can expect.

6:47 pm: Question on why Google is not more broadly used in the education market?

Schmidt says the company has funded a number of YouTube professors. “We’ve not yet come up with the killer [education] app,” he says.

6:49 pm: Asked about Google’s interest in the PC operating system market, Schmidt says that Google’s answer is Chrome OS. Sometime in the spring you will see a series of PC makers come out with Chrome OS devices. However, he adds they won’t run current PC apps, such as Windows apps.

“It does not run any of your current PC applications so you might think about it,” Schmidt said. That said, he adds there are, in most cases, cloud-based options that are roughly equivalent.

6:52 pm: With that, Schmidt wraps up.

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.

Verizon iPhone: What, AT&T Worry?

John Paczkowski — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:11:43 +0000

Another question to ponder on the eve of the iPhone’s debut on Verizon: Now that its archrival has the device on which it once had an exclusive, a device that has done so much for its bottom line, how will AT&T respond?

Or, rather, how has it been responding? Because it’s clear the company has been preparing for this moment for some time. Last year, it accelerated upgrade eligibility for iPhone customers, making it easier for them to get the iPhone 4 when Apple released it. And it locked them all into two-year contracts in the process. And then, last week, it drastically reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS, halving it to $49 from $99.

Presumably, AT&T could follow this with additional pricing promotions that could further limit iPhone subscriber defections to Verizon, though at this point one could argue that it’s as well prepared for its loss of iPhone exclusivity as it will ever be.

Why? Two big reasons:

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen, nearly 80 percent of AT&T iPhone users are currently on family or corporate plans, which makes switching to a new carrier a difficult proposition.
Approximately 75 percent of them still have at least a year left on their contracts.

And there’s a third wild-card reason as well: How Verizon’s network fares after a big influx of data-heavy iPhone subscribers. That’s tough to predict, but two analysts I’ve spoken with said they expect Verizon to suffer some network growing pains, though not as bad as the ones suffered by AT&T. Ultimately, Verizon is starting off with a better network, and CDMA is said to be a more spectrally efficient standard than UMTS.

So will there be some AT&T subscribers who switch to Verizon when it begins selling the iPhone? Certainly. But they may not be nearly as large in number as you might think.

“AT&T has done everything it can,” Needham and Co. analyst Charlie Wolf told me this morning. “The company locked in a lot of iPhone owners by waiving early termination fees last summer. It’s moved aggressively to add a bunch of BlackBerrys and Android phones. And it should be remembered that AT&T will continue to sell the iPhone. So I doubt that the loss of subscribers to Verizon will be that large. But it could be material as it pertains to the bragging rights between AT&T and Verizon. “

PREVIOUSLY:

Why Verizon’s iPhone Won’t Be So Bad for RIM

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

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

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

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

John Paczkowski — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:16:10 +0000

Verizon Wireless will hold an event in New York tomorrow where, as we first reported here, it will announce the availability of Apple’s iPhone on its network. And when it does, it will halt once and for all the near-pathological Verizon iPhone speculation that preceded it.

But only because those who speculated about the existence of a Verizon iPhone have been struck by a new monomania: Speculating about first-year Verizon iPhone sales numbers.

Indeed, the sales estimates are already rolling out, with the consensus so far hovering between nine million and 12 milion.

“Some think 10 million is possible in the calendar year,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told me. “And I think it’s a reasonable assumption–not just because of what we’ve seen on AT&T but because you have three years of pent-up demand from users who are loyal to the Verizon network because of its coverage and reliability.”

Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall agrees, though he’s betting on sales hitting the top end of the range I mentioned.

“The iPhone on Verizon will sell 12 million units in calendar 2011 assuming there’s a ramp-up similar to the one AT&T experienced in 2007-2008 (i.e., 5 percent penetration of the postpaid subscriber base within five quarters of launch),” he told me, adding that AT&T will see a material decline in its iPhone sales as a result.

Taking a more conservative view of the iPhone’s prospects on Verizon is Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who expects Verizon to activate roughly 25 million smartphones in calendar 2011, of which nine million will be iPhones.

Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe too is betting on that nine-million figure, and of those he expects approximately 500,000 to one million to be purchased by AT&T switchers. Said Ratcliffe, “We don’t believe that the addition of a Verizon iPhone will be a seismic event in the wireless competitive environment, although we do expect it to result in a modest spike in AT&T churn, as customers who love their iPhones but have become unhappy with AT&T’s network take advantage of the alternative.”

PREVIOUSLY:

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

John Paczkowski — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:05:15 +0000

When the iPhone finally arrives on Verizon’s network, how will the carrier set it apart from the one that’s been offered by AT&T since it first debuted in 2007?

Here’s one way: By offering it with a wireless service plan free of the data caps used by AT&T.

Sources close to Verizon tell me the carrier will offer the iPhone with an unlimited data plan (presumably the same $30 unlimited plan it offers for other smartphones)–though they wouldn’t say for how long. That should distinguish it a bit more from the iPhone on AT&T, which requires a capped plan for data service.

Not that such differences worry AT&T any. “We think customers will prefer AT&T’s faster speeds and better functionality over a CDMA network device,” a spokesperson told me. And he has a point. AT&T’s UMTS network allows the use of data and voice simultaneously. Verizon’s CMDA network doesn’t–at least not yet. So, initially, Verizon iPhone users won’t be able to use the Web or check email while on a call–something AT&T iPhone users have long been able to do.

All Things D reported Friday that the special event Verizon is holding in New York Tuesday will be the carrier’s long-rumored iPhone announcement.

PREVIOUSLY:

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Microsoft's Browser Boss Dean Hachamovitch Touts Privacy Features at D@CES

Peter Kafka — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:28:59 +0000

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser is still the world’s most popular, but its dominance is being steadily eroded by competition from Mozilla, Google and Apple. Can a new, aggressive approach to privacy change that? Can Microsoft really protect users from tracking across the Web–and do users really care?

Dean Hachamovitch, who oversees IE for Microsoft as a corporate VP, gives Walt Mossberg an update on the browser wars.

Greetings! We’ll be starting shortly. If you were in the room right now with our select crowd, you would have just heard some Aerosmith. And now, one of my favorite Van Morrison songs : “Jackie Wilson Said.” Also, we’re not using the classic red D interview chairs for this one. Going with a kind of teal blue. Now you know!

[ See post to watch video ]

Some Isley Brothers now.

Some Elvis Costello. Don’t know this one, though.

And…here’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Kara is wearing something that might have been bedazzled. Walt’s wearing Waltwear.

An update on the state of the ATD empire, which is getting much bigger.

Walt brings on Dean Hachamovitch.

Dean, by the way, is wearing a black long-sleeve shirt that says “private” in big white letters. Hope someone asks him about it.

Ah, and Dean has a “private” shirt for Walt, too. We’ll get to privacy in a bit, it seems.

DEAN: Working on IE 9, in beta, downloaded over 20 million times. Most important is its performance. It’s amazingly fast. Also, it blurs the boundary between Web sites and apps. And also, some talk about privacy.

WALT: Okay, that was a nice ad. But please talk about reports that you’ve been eclipsed in Europe by Firefox.

DEAN: Yes, we used to have 90 percent market share back in the ’90s. But now we look at how many people choose to use our most recent versions. “We are delighted that IE 6 market share is going down. We are delighted that IE 7 market share is going down.”

DEAN: And bear in mind how much the Internet is growing. “There are a lot of different factors. It’s a very complex situation.”

WALT: Okay, on to privacy. Safari used to have some kind of privacy feature, but that’s old. Then in IE 8, you introduced a new feature, not by default, which tried to extend that protection to other sites on the Web you traveled to.

DEAN: You were describing “over the shoulder privacy.” But we’re also concerned about tracking. There are two kinds of tracking: “Expected tracking” and “creepy stalking.”

Pandora and Amazon are expected tracking. You want them to know what you’re doing. But the important thing is that you have visibility and control, and you get benefits.

For instance, when I go to Amazon, they know that I bought Spice Girls and Fergie, and they tell me other stuff I should get.

WALT: Some of that tracking isn’t sophisticated enough.

DEAN: Anyway, creepy stalking is bad. Because consumers aren’t aware of what’s going on, and they don’t have control of it.

WALT: We don’t allow slides at our conferences usually, but we’re going to make an exception. Please show us some slides!

Dean is showing people a monitor that shows you what cookies were attached to a certain NPR page, which includes tracking info that comes from Facebook integration.

Now a Fox News page with similar info.

A reminder that cookies, by the way, aren’t the only tracking info involved here. Also pixels, etc.

But even once you root around and look at the pixels and tracking info, you might not really understand what you’re looking at or who is behind them.

WALT: Microsoft is a big Internet advertiser and publisher. Don’t you do some of this stuff?

DEAN: Yes, and in addition to us and Google, etc, there is an amazing ecosystem of information brokers. There’s a huge industry around this.

WALT: So what’s coming?

DEAN: With the new rev of IE 9, first quarter of 2011, you’ll be able to “go to a Web page, click on a button and you’ll be protected from tracking.” Any Web page can do this.

It will block content on that page. It will be an open publishing platform.

WALT: Why would a publisher want to do this? They have a legitmate need to want to know things about you, to serve you better ads, right?

DEAN: We have a lot of interest from a lot of different organizations that want to make lists. Publishers, government agencies, consumer advocacy, etc.

WALT: So, I have to download a list from someone I trust to make this work. Will you maintain this list?

DEAN: No. People will find these lists the same way that they find other things on the Web they like. From Facebook, or friends, or wherever.

We think it’s important to have people exercise judgment in making these lists. The most important thing is that you go off to the Web and find one you have confidence in.

WALT: But why do I have to hope that I go to sites that have these buttons?

WALT and DEAN are trying to explain how the list and button combination will work. Frankly, I’m confused. We’ll have to circle back to this.

WALT: A cynical journalist might suggest that you’re embracing privacy and wearing a shirt because Firefox et al are eating your lunch.

DEAN: Paying Windows customers want a great experience that includes privacy, including through their browser. But another way to view people who use browsers is that they’re objects to be boxed and sold. We don’t believe that. We believe Windows customers should have a great experience with their browser.

WALT: As opposed to?

DEAN: Well, Chrome, for instance, is funded by advertising.

WALT: So is The Wall Street Journal.

DEAN: I think advertising is great. But be careful about connecting advertising with tracking. We have advertising customers, and we want them to be delighted. And we have Windows customers, and we want them to be delighted. We have a unique position on this that gives us an opporunity to lead.

WALT: All the other browsers have a privacy mode.

DEAN: But that’s for “over the shoulder” privacy, not tracking.

WALT: Some of this tracking stuff is very hard to block. Can you really protect a user from all of it?

DEAN: Good question. Flash, for instance, enables tracking “Flash cookies” and they’re inherent in Flash. Only way to turn them off is to turn Flash off.

WALT: So this won’t block Flash cookies?

DEAN: It will if you tell it to.

WALT: But that’s pretty extreme.

DEAN: Yes. We’re touching on the ambiguity to the consumer about what actually is important and worthwhile tracking, and what isn’t.

We want to help consumers make progress being in control, but it’s a work in progress. It’s happening in Berkeley and in Brussels.

WALT: Let’s switch gears. Some people, not mainstream people, are debating whether the future of entertainment and progress and productivity will be on the browser and in the cloud. Google is pushing that via Chrome OS, and they also have Android apps that store local cloud on the device. Where do you come down on that?

DEAN: It’s a great case of “and”–you’ll have local apps and cloud versions. Like with Office mail, etc. We’re doing work on speed and safety so you can feel more comfortable in the cloud. “I think it’s the best of both worlds.”

WALT: So not a religious issue? Just practicality?

DEAN: Yes.

Questions and Answers

Q: What do you think of what the FTC says about privacy?

DEAN: The paper they put out in December is a good framework. And they’ve responded positively to what we’ve put out. They’re in favor of self-regulation, and we’re eager to work with them. I’ve had conversations with them, and what they say makes sense.

WALT: You’ve been talking to competitors about working together on this?

DEAN: We’ve been talking across the industry.

Q: Who is supposed to make banking, etc., more secure? This isn’t just about someone saying something on Facebook, but opening up the wrong window and having your bank account drained.

DEAN: We take it very seriously. “Security is an industry issue. I have to say it that way, because anything that we can talk about here has multiple parties involved.” if your Facebook is hacked, was it using your banking password?

Q: I’m talking about a national security issue.

DEAN: There’s a lot of working going on within the industry, working with law enformecement, to make things more secure.

WALT: But since you have the biggest market share, there’s a lot of responsibility on you. What do you do about that?

DEAN: Well, one thing we do is put out updates every eight weeks, because things change.

But really, “the best thing you can do to remain secure is to keep all your bits updated….That would make such a difference.”

Q: Firefox has plug-ins like AdBlock, that let you block ads. They seem to be effective at blocking things like beacons, too. Are they effective and can you do something analogous?

DEAN: Add-ins require installation, etc. You need a list, too. But we’re building that functionality into IE, so you don’t need to download anything else. We’re also working with people who make lists for AdBlock Plus, and they’re eager to work with IE 9 as well.

WALT: But AdBlock blocks ads, too. You’re not going to do that, right?

DEAN: It comes down to the list. If a list author lists sites that involve ads, then they’ll go away, too.

WALT: So you could surf the Web without seeing ads?

DEAN: It depends on the list.

WALT: I do think ads are good, by the way. [Me too!]

DEAN: Right. “Ads are great!”

But this is one of the reasons the ad industry wants to create lists for this. So they can distinguish tracking from nontracking.

Q: You’ve been talking about desktop browsers. Will these features come to mobile as well?

DEAN: “We’ll be talking about our mobile browser very soon, and I’ll just smile, and you can infer from that.”

Q: How much more value does tracking really add to advertising?

DEAN: Hard for me to answer that. Maybe the next time you have one of these things, you could have someone from the ad industry.

WALT: Good idea.

And we’re done.

Verizon Wireless Touts 4G Network, Shows Off Devices

Ina Fried — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:03:21 +0000

Well, we didn’t learn much new about Verizon Wireless’s new network or devices at the Ivan Seidenberg keynote on Thursday, but he did say that the company would have a preview of its LTE device lineup at this afternoon’s press conference.

Here’s hoping there are a few surprises here beyond the previously announced Motorola Atrix and Xoom.

The event is set to kick off shortly and Mobilized will have live coverage here.

1:05 pm: Well, despite timely warnings to get in our seats beginning at 12:45, it’s now five minutes after and the techno is still pumping.

1:11 pm: Okay. Getting started. Loud music gets louder. Cue video.

Tony Melone and Marni Walden take the stage and CEO Daniel Mead (at least I think it is Mead) is doing an intro.

1:15 pm: Another video now playing with partners. Since HTC CEO Peter Chou is in there, I think it is probably safe to say their oft-rumored LTE smartphone will make an appearance.

1:16 pm: Samsung and Ericsson execs also in the video.

1:17 pm: Verizon exec now touting the advantages of its 4G network including its spectrum, which it says will give it the best in-building coverage.

Also talking about how it is sharing its spectrum with rural service providers.

1:18 pm: Mead: “We’re very pleased to be part of bringing broadband to rural America.”

1:21 pm: Mead hands off to CTO Tony Melone to talk 4G and LTE.

Melone says that the company knows there is a lot of skepticism of the company’s move to go straight to LTE but that the bet is paying off with more networks and running faster than planned.

“The customer feedback we are getting is everything we had hoped for and then some,” Melone says.

Melone talks about 4G LTE plans.

Thirty-six months from now we will have the nation covered with LTE, Melone says. Two-thirds of the population will be covered in 2012. This year alone, he says, Verizon will add 140 new markets, including places like Little Rock, Detroit and Sioux Falls.

1:26 pm: On to devices.

Ten devices coming by mid-year being shown on stage: Four smartphones, two tablets, two notebooks and two mobile hotspots.

1:33 pm: LG CEO shows off the LG Revolution, what appears to be a slimmish smartphone.

Next up, Skype’s CEO talks about a new partnership that will allow for Skype to be always on and integrated into the address book of all of Verizon’s LTE smartphones,

1:34 pm: He’s followed by HTC CEO Peter Chou, who introduces the HTC Thunderbolt.

Chou says he’s been personally testing and using the Thunderbolt, which features the new Skype video chatting along with HTC’s Sense user interface.

“Let me tell you, it’s blazing fast,” Chou says.

Other features include a built-in 4G hotspot and a 4.3-inch Super LCD screen.

1:37 pm: He thanks Qualcomm and Google engineers that worked together to create the device, so guessing this one isn’t using Nvidia’s Tegra chip.

Next up is Electronic Arts VP Travis Boatman. EA’s mobile games lineup ranges from Monopoly and Tetris to Need for Speed and the FIFA 11 soccer game.

The new mobile version of Rock Band for Verizon’s LTE network lets people form a band and remotely jam over the network.

Samsung executive goes onstage to show off three devices for the LTE network, One is a mobile hotspot, one is a smartphone and the other is a 4G version of the Galaxy Tab.

Phone packs 4.3-inch Super Amoled Plus display, which is said to boost colors and offer improved display. It’s got an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with HD video and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

The tablet has a 1.2GHz processor developed by Samsung, while the hotspots provide connections to up to five users at a time.

Most impressive is the fact that the Samsung executive pulled all three devices out of various pockets.

Marni Walden shows off the remaining devices–a Novatel MiFi hotpot that works with both 3G and 4G networks.

There is also a Compaq Netbook, an HP notebook, as well as the previously announced Motorola Xoom and Motorola Droid Bionic.

1:47 pm: On to Q&A (hoping laptop No. 2 holds out through the end of question time.)

First question has to do with LTE speeds, which often exceed the 5- to 12-megabit speeds promised. Mead says that the company’s goal is to meet the promised speed range once the network is fully loaded, something that is not the case today.

Next question is on battery life. Melone says the company believes it will be able to meet customer expectations in that regard.

The company says it won’t announce pricing or rate plans for the 4G products, beyond noting its current prices for 4G laptop cards and service.

As for simultaneous voice and data, Walden says the company intends that at least some of its 4G launch devices will support talking and accessing data at the same time.

“It could be on some devices and not all,” Walden says.

Walden also confirms all the phones it showed Thursday are running Android.

1:55 pm: Asked about net neutrality, Mead says that what the industry needs is “unfettered development.”

“We think the free market system works very well, and we don’t need a lot of heavy intervention.”

In 4G Race, Verizon Pulls Ahead With Pricey Speed

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:03:48 +0000

One of the biggest technology trends in 2011 will be the expansion of new, faster cellular networks called 4G, or fourth generation. These networks promise a big increase in speed and capacity to handle the surge in streaming video, audio and Web surfing from hot-selling devices like super-smart phones and tablets, as well as from laptops. But you’ll have to buy new phones, modems and other connected consumer devices to get the higher speed they offer.

[ See post to watch video ]

Wireless carriers and handset makers will be touting their 4G plans and compatible devices at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but it will be a couple of years before 4G networks in the U.S. achieve the same coverage as the current standard, called 3G.

The move to 4G from 3G began last year, with Sprint leading the way and Verizon Wireless joining in the last few weeks of 2010 with a limited deployment. But 2011 will see the service spreading to more and more cities, and is also expected to see the entry of AT&T. T-Mobile hasn’t announced an actual 4G network rollout, but is instead relying on a souped-up version of 3G that it is marketing as 4G because it claims it can deliver similar data speeds with its approach.

I’ve been testing the 4G network of the latest entrant, Verizon, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., which is one of 38 metro areas (plus 60 airports) where the company turned on its 4G network in December. My verdict is that it’s wicked fast—the fastest 4G network I’ve tried—but also potentially costly. In my tests, with a laptop modem, it proved dramatically faster than Verizon’s 3G network, and recorded speeds on a par with some land-line Internet connections.

But 4G from Verizon won’t be cheap. For laptop modem users, at least, Verizon is charging $50 a month for up to 5 gigabytes of data use and $80 monthly for 10 gigabytes. If you run over, the company will bill you $10 for every extra gigabyte. Such data limits aren’t new, but, with 4G’s much higher speeds, users may find themselves sending and receiving more data more often, and thus breaching the limits more regularly. For instance, in my tests, I was easily able to download a nearly 600 megabyte TV show, something I wouldn’t even try with a 3G modem. That one download would have eaten up more than 10% of my monthly cap under the $50 plan.

Verizon’s first LTE laptop modem, the LG VL600, has a flip top that reveals the USB connector.

Verizon’s variant of 4G uses a different underlying technology than Sprint’s. It’s called LTE, for Long Term Evolution, and is also the 4G system being adopted by many other cellular operators around the world, including AT&T. (Technically, this first version of LTE isn’t considered true 4G by the engineering standards body that rules on such matters, but that makes little difference to consumers looking for faster connections.)

The company says it chose LTE because it is not only fast, but is less prone to interference, can provide better battery life, has less latency, or lag, and can better handle multiple users simultaneously. The LTE system doesn’t affect voice calls on Verizon’s network—it’s only for data, and operates in tandem with the current voice network.

Verizon claims its new network is up to 10 times faster than its 3G network and says consumers will see speeds of between 5 and 12 megabits per second for downloads and between 2 and 5 mbps for uploads, in “real-world, loaded network environments.”

As of this writing, Verizon doesn’t offer an actual LTE-capable smart phone, only LTE USB modems that plug into laptops. But the company is expected to offer a sneak peek at CES this week of several LTE phones that will roll out in the coming months, as well other planned LTE devices, from a variety of manufacturers. Again, I want to stress that your current Verizon phone or laptop modem can’t be upgraded to work with LTE. You’ll need a new one.

For my tests, I used Verizon’s first LTE laptop modem, the VL600 made by LG of Korea. It sells for $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year service contract. This modem can handle data over slower 3G networks, if you happen to stray out of one of Verizon’s 4G service areas. For now, it works only on computers running Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. But the company says it should have Mac-compatible LTE modems in a month or so.

To use it, you have to first install, from an included CD, a new version of Verizon’s cellular modem software, VZAccess Manager. Older versions won’t work. My test machine was a Lenovo ThinkPad X301, which worked fine with a Verizon 3G modem. Installation was relatively quick and smooth, though I was immediately instructed to download an updated version of the software, so I had to go through it twice.

I disabled Wi-Fi on the ThinkPad, plugged in the LTE modem and ran 10 tests using the popular Speedtest.net website. The results were impressive. Verizon’s 4G network averaged just a shade under 16 megabits per second for downloads and 6.6 mbps for uploads. That was 15 times the download speed, and 13 times the upload speed, of a Verizon 3G modem I tested immediately afterward using the same method in the same location.

To relate these speeds to real-world scenarios, I downloaded from iTunes a standard-definition episode of the TV show “The Good Wife”—a 588 megabyte file—in just seven minutes, instead of the two hours or so iTunes predicted it would take when I was using the 3G modem. I streamed several long videos, including two in HD, from the Web, and they played smooth as silk.

But there are caveats. For one thing, hardly anyone is using this new Verizon network yet, and it’s likely to slow down as it gets crowded, especially with smart-phone users. Secondly, laptop cellular modems typically deliver faster speeds than phones, so my results don’t necessarily predict phone or tablet performance.

Also, speeds can vary by city and distance. My tests were mainly conducted against a server in my local D.C. area. But I also tried a few tests against a server in San Francisco and only got about 6 mbps download—within Verizon’s claims, but much slower.

Still, if you can afford it, and if it works well in phones and tablets, Verizon’s new LTE network could be a great boon to your digital lifestyle.

Find all Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, allthingsd.com.

T-Mobile's CES Plans: Lots of Android, Some Tablets and a Faster Network

Ina Fried — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:50:11 +0000

While a lot of the talk has centered on what Verizon Wireless would be up to at the Consumer Electronics Show, the other carriers are also hoping to make a few headlines in Vegas, including the always spunky T-Mobile.

T-Mobile already has its ads that liken its network to a motorcycle as compared to AT&T’s scooter, but the carrier plans to rev its engine a bit faster at CES. Mobilized has learned the carrier will use the show to outline its plans for HSPA+42, a faster version of its current HSPA+ network.

In an interview, Senior Director of Engineering Mark McDiarmid said that it will unveil its plans for the faster network in Vegas and added that the technology will be integrated into smartphones next year.

“We think it’s a huge benefit,” he said. The new network offers theoretical maximum speeds that are twice as fast (42 megabits per second) as the current HSPA+ network, and T-Mobile said that devices built to take advantage of the new network should also see a comparable boost in average speeds. (Users typically get far less than a network’s maximum speed. For example, on the 21 Mbps network, T-Mobile says users of its MyTouch 4G have seen average speeds of 5 Mbps and peak speeds of 12 Mbps in some cities.)

While others have been talking about (and in many cases rolling out) all-new 4G networks, T-Mobile has been focused on speeding up its current network. In point of fact, it’s really its only option given it lacks the spectrum at this point to build an LTE or WiMax network as Sprint and Verizon are doing. However, T-Mobile maintains that focusing on faster versions of existing technology will provide similar speeds at a lower cost and with fewer headaches for users.

In an email to Mobilized, T-Mobile offered a few more hints at the directions we can expect it to take at CES.

“T-Mobile is big on Android, big on faster 4G speeds and big on 4G devices including tablets,” the carrier said. “We will continue to drive innovation on these fronts in 2011.”

T-Mobile is also expected to talk more about its tablet plans. The carrier had previously said it would have tablets that support HSPA+ in the new year.

IPhone App iTeleport Wants You to Get Excited About VNC

Voices — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:12:03 +0000

In app store terms, iTeleport is as old as it gets. In fact, it actually predates the app store, according to founder J Sherwani.

Today, iTeleport’s update will offer the product free for 30 days, and then switch to $3 a month thereafter or $25 for unlimited use.

So, why would a small, profitable company–Sherwani said there have been a total of about 700,000 devices on iTeleport in its two-plus years in existence–decide to give away its only product for free?

According to iTeleport, it’s the thing to do if you want to change how people think of VNC, or virtual network computing.

Essentially, that means you can use one computer to log in to and operate another.

And this two-man shop might not be alone in thinking there’s a future in bringing VNC-style computing to the masses.

Vishal Kapur, the other iTeleporter, said that he thinks there is an untapped consumer group out there for VNC, especially those using Apple’s iPad and iPhone, and that most users aren’t there yet because there haven’t been consumer-focused products built on the technology.

“They [VNCs] have been around for 25 years, but they have always been an enterprise thing,” Kapur said.

But moves by larger companies, such as the recent demo of OnLive’s new cloud gaming and computing system at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference, indicate that the iTeleport team may not be the only ones thinking the future lies in this direction.

In fact, Mobilized’s Ina Fried reported on enterprise software maker Wyse doing pretty much the same thing–taking its basic VNC app and making it free.

While freer access to a desktop’s files on the go might be great, the bigger question here is: What are the hurdles ahead now that it looks like we might have a race?

Sherwani sees a world where you can share a screen, folder or an online shopping experience with a friend just as fast as you can share a link today.

He thinks the biggest barrier to overcome is the narrative about what VNCs are good for, but admits there are technical limitations too.

Thus, he wants iTeleport to rethink what the VNC is and repackage the whole experience to make using your desktop through your iPhone “as good as, if not better than,” sitting in front of it.

Big ideas are important, but there are also some bandwidth realities to overcome.

Today, VNCs don’t include sound, and depending on your connection speed at both ends–your desktop and mobile device–there is enough lag to make modern games and HD video look like a flip book.

Also, many people turn their computers off (or close the lid) when they leave the house, which renders the VNC connection useless.

Sherwani concedes these are big issues today, but said that the first step is to let more people see what VNC can do, and to let them share stories of consumer VNC experiences.

With little app makers like iTeleport in the mix with businesses in totally different weight classes, the future of VNC, or maybe we could call it “mobile terminal computing,” is interesting, if a bit murky.

Will users either gravitate toward OnLive’s model of taking a tiny piece of a very big cloud, or will there be a more scaled model, where the OnLives and the iTeleports of the world exist together and users simply choose seamlessly between how much computing power and interactivity they require to fill a given need?

Since we aren’t in the heyday of the teleport yet, please accept this video interview with the iTeleport team as a substitute:

[ See post to watch video ]

If Speed Matters, Why Is American Broadband So Slow?

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:57:11 +0000

The Communications Workers of America have completed their latest survey of broadband connections in the U.S., and if the point wasn’t already well-established, then they’re here to remind you: Broadband connections in America are slow and service availability is lousy or non-existent in many areas, and that’s leaving a lot of people–millions actually–at a severe educational, economic and cultural disadvantage.

Here are a few highlights:

Half of all U.S. residential broadband connections fall below the minimum speed established by the Federal Communications Commission of four megabits per second down and one megabit up. That definition of what constitutes “broadband” is however all of six months old.
The median download speed was three megabits per second and 595 kilobits up, and these have only improved a little bit since the 2009 survey. At the rate the U.S. is going it will take 60 years to catch up with South Korea, where broadband network speeds are legendary, averaging 34 megabits per second.
Only one percent of broadband connections in the U.S. run at 50 megabits per second down and 20 up, meeting the FCC’s goal for the year 2015.

The report points out a few other findings from the FCC’s research: As many as 100 million people–roughly one in three–don’t have access to broadband at home, and of those, 24 million can’t get it if they want it, usually because they live on the wrong side of a seemingly arbitrary line on some map. Others say it’s too expensive or that they simply don’t know how to use it.

The 68-page report (PDF) goes on to break down the broadband situation in each state and a few U.S. territories.

The CWA released the report at a press conference in Washington, D.C., today, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was on hand to lend his support and talk about his plans to reform the Universal Service Fund so that besides funding telephone service in rural areas, which was the reason it was created, it can be used to help fund broadband deployments in markets where service is limited for one reason or another. He also talked about getting some of the hurdles out of the way of private companies, so that when they choose to build infrastructure they can move fast. Simply cutting red tape can reduce the deployment costs by 40 percent.

Below is a grab of the CWA’s speed map of the U.S. (Click on it to zoom in.)

Update: And here’s a video of today’s press conference at the National Press Club. Genachowski is the second speaker.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse at Dive Into Mobile

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:45:26 +0000

When Sprint CEO Dan Hesse joined the company three years ago, the third-largest carrier was bleeding subscribers from having a poor reputation for customer service and facing stiff competition from the likes of AT&T, which holds the exclusive on the iPhone.

Since then, Sprint has stemmed the losses, mostly by beefing up its customer service and by investing in the prepaid sector to attract a wider audience during the economic downturn. Going forward, Sprint looks to its 4G strategy for growth through its ownership stake in WiMax-provider Clearwire. Next up, Hesse joins Walt Mossberg onstage.

3:45 pm: Walt welcomes Dan Hesse to the stage. You can’t have mobile without networks, says Walt. You’ve led the way on 4G; tell us about it.

3:46 pm: Dan: We are getting San Francisco up soon, and will have 120 million POPs by the end of the year, or about a third of the country.

He explains what 4G is: 3G for was email and Web pages, but 4G is for multimedia and video.

The best analogy is that 4G is the wide open freeway vs. an interstate that provides the same speeds, but you have to stop along the way.

3:48 pm: Walt: Why are you using WiMax when the two other carriers are using LTE?

Hesse: Back in 2008, we wanted to be first, and WiMax was available right now. (Lots to do with TDD, and other technical mumbo jumbo). Technically, there’s no difference. I can’t deny that LTE will be a bigger ecosystem, but we couldn’t wait. We thought the market was ready.

With the success of the iPhone, we thought it was ready now.

Walt: How much leadership did it give you?

Hesse: Well, it made Verizon move a lot faster….In 2010, we’ll have 120 million POPs, and the EVO and Epic (two 4G phones) have been really successful.

Walt: How successful?

Hesse: If you were to go to Clearwire’s wholesale numbers, you should think of Sprint’s lion’s share of the wholesale numbers.

Walt: Was it worth the investment?

Hesse: I think so.

3:53 pm: Hesse: 4G is one element of many.

Walt: You like Consumer Reports, unlike the guy here earlier [AT&T's Glenn Lurie].

Hesse: Sprint is the fastest growing brand of postpaid in the U.S.–not the Nextel brand, where we’ve been losing subscribers.

3:55 pm: Walt: Are you going to get the iPhone?

Hesse: Can’t say.

Walt: Would you like the iPhone?

Hesse: Under the right conditions, yes, I would. It’s a wonderful phone.

3:56 pm: Backing up a bit, Walt now asks about an industry trend toward tiered pricing for data plans, where the more you use, the more you pay.

Sprint hasn’t yet limited users’ traffic.

Hesse: Customers will pay a premium for simplicity. Even if it’s not in their best economic interest, they will go with the unlimited plan. We were the first to come out with truly unlimited text, voice and data with the Simply Everything plan.

3:59 pm: Walt: Are you not going to do tiered pricing?

Hesse: So far, we aren’t, he says, which gets a round of applause from the audience. But Sprint did up the cost of the unlimited plans of the most capable devices on the network.

4:00 pm: Walt: Unlimited means unlimited or doesn’t it?

Hesse: No, it doesn’t. What if they have the SlingBox streaming 24×7?

4:01 pm: Hesse: The trend is toward one plan for all of your devices, like tablets, phones, PCs, etc.

Walt: Are you going to offer plans for all those devices?

Hesse: We are thinking about it. That’s the next step to simplicity. Three years ago, it was about one device.

4:02 pm: Walt: People aren’t counting minutes, now they are counting megabytes and things people don’t understand.

Hesse: Something has to give; what’s going to be the form? Do you have meters, do you have tiers, do you increase the price of the unlimited plans?

Another option is to have a lot more spectrum available to add capacity at a lower cost.

Walt: Are you talking about taking away the spectrum that the elderly use to watch their TV?

Hesse: If more spectrum is available, you can use more frequencies, which is a lot less expensive than splitting cell sites and putting in more towers.

Walt: There’s some confusion about Clearwire. They are opening stores and selling laptops and modems. You own most of that company, and they are building your WiMax network. Why are they competing with you?

Hesse: I have a wholesale business that resells minutes to Leap, so it’s the same thing.

4:06 pm: Walt’s giving Hesse grief about the structure of the Clearwire deal. Despite Sprint owning roughly 54 percent of the company, Sprint doesn’t control the board.

Walt: Who did that deal?

Hesse: Two thumbs pointing at himself [me]. When you have this many owners of the company, we can’t agree.

4:08 pm: Walt: What’s the value of 4G?

Hesse: The experience is really fast, and we offer unlimited plans on 4G. There’s a five-gigabyte cap on 3G, but 4G is completely unlimited.

Walt’s curious if 4G is really life-changing and transformative. Sprint’s beating the other guys by 2x, not 10x or 20x.

Hesse: My son showed me his speed test on his EVO at home, and it was over 8 mbps, so it depends.

4:11 pm: Questions from the audience. The Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley asks about the potential deal between Clearwire and T-Mobile, which may be falling apart because of Clearwire’s recent $1 billion in debt that it has raised.

Hesse deflects the question despite several reports to the contrary, by saying he didn’t know anything about that.

Another audience question: What’s your stance on network neutrality?

Hesse: The FCC has come out with a proposal, and we are very supportive of it.

Verizon Gets Ready to Launch 4G

Ina Fried — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:27:42 +0000

Verizon Wireless is about to move from talking about 4G to actually launching its service. The company announced that it will hold a press event on Wednesday to officially spill the beans.

A lot of those beans, though, are already out there. The company has said it will launch the 4G network (using the Long Term Evolution, or LTE, protocol) in 38 cities before the end of the year. It’s also bringing 4G to more than 60 airports across the country.

Although Verizon’s network will launch in December, it will be only for laptops for a while, with 4G consumer phones expected by the middle of next year. As with past leaps, the big plus of the 4G network is faster connections.

For those still getting up to speed on 4G (including yours truly), here’s a recap. Sprint has already launched its 4G network using a different technology, WiMax, in a number of cities. AT&T is planning to use LTE for its 4G network, with its rollout slated for next year. And, just to further confuse things, T-Mobile has recently started billing its faster-speed 3G network using the term 4G and launching devices like the myTouch 4G.

The big question now is just what Verizon will want users to fork over for its speedy network and how it approaches the question of tiered pricing and unlimited versus capped pricing at the high end.

In any case, Mobilized will be covering the Verizon event tomorrow, which is set for noon Eastern Time and will feature Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone.

AT&T Races to Tout Speed-Test Results

Voices — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:25:53 +0000

AT&T has some new ammunition to fire at anyone who casts aspersions on the speed and reliability of its wireless network. Nationwide testing by Global Wireless Solutions, covering more than 400 markets representing about 88 percent of the U.S. population, found AT&T’s average mobile broadband speeds to be tops–its unnamed “nearest competitor” averaging speeds that were 20 percent slower and its largest competitor (that would be Verizon) running 60 percent slower. The GWS tests also showed that 98.59 percent of voice calls connected over the AT&T network nationwide are completed without interruption–within one-tenth of one percentage point of the top score in that category.

No Facebook User Emails for Google–But Yahoo and Microsoft Already Have Access

Liz Gannes — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:06:47 +0000

Facebook and Google are hardly friends these days, and they’re having more and more trouble containing their dislike. (Maybe they should take a hint from Jimmy Kimmel and his National UnFriend Day campaign.)

Background: Last week, Google stopped allowing Facebook to help its users find their friends by importing their Gmail contacts list. Google said the move was about data portability and liberation, calling Facebook a “data dead end” because it wasn’t giving its users’ email addresses to Google.

Facebook yesterday found a workaround to re-enable Google contacts importing, and Facebook engineering lead Mike Vernal commented on TechCrunch at length under his own name, charging Google with hypocrisy for disallowing contact importing for Orkut last year and “limiting user choice.”

What’s funny, though, as sources have pointed out to us, is that Facebook actually does allow email importing, specifically to Yahoo Mail and Microsoft’s Hotmail (we checked AOL mail too, but couldn’t find it there).

This is no secret; Yahoo launched its Facebook email contact importer in March of this year. In a blog post at the time, senior product manager Rick Pal said,

Importing from Facebook is super simple…After you click login, we will authorize your account and begin importing, which may take a minute or two depending on your Internet speed and how many Facebook friends you have.

Update: Microsoft confirmed through a spokesperson that its Windows Live users can import both Facebook and Gmail contacts, and said some nice stuff about its commitment to customer choice.

Access to user emails isn’t something Facebook gives just anyone. In fact, only a few partners can hook into them while the rest have to rely on users’ Facebook-formatted information available through Facebook Connect. That includes Google. The difference, according to a source, is that Yahoo and Microsoft asked nicely.

Please see my disclosure related to Facebook here.

IPads Perform Better on Wi-Fi Than 4G?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:30:07 +0000

IPad owners living in a Clearwire 4G wireless zone and considering purchasing one of the company’s new iSpot base stations to enhance the device’s connectivity may want to hold off. Because according to a new report from BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk, the iPad doesn’t perform as well on Clearwire’s 4G iSpots as it does on typical Wi-Fi access points. In fact, in Piecyk’s tests, the iPad’s average download speed using an iSpot was 2.5 Mbps–about half the download speed he experienced using a Windows laptop.

“[The] iPad consistently produced lower download speeds than Windows based laptops,” Piecyk wrote today. “This appears to be an issue with the iPad and hot spots and not Wi-Fi in general since our iPad speeds on our home Wi-Fi were equivalent to other devices. When we tested the iPad on our FiOS powered Wi-Fi connection, we received the full 25 Mbps of available download speed on every test.” (Click image below to enlarge.)

Odd, particularly since iSpot was specifically engineered to work with Apple devices.

“There appears to be something going on in how Apple’s Wi-Fi implementation is working with wireless hotspots,” Piecyk concludes. “Once again, all we can refer to is a company’s relative expertise in RF engineering. Our home Wi-Fi router does not have to deal with incoming 4G signal or a need to preserve battery life like a hotspot does. We suspect we will be getting a lot of feedback on this topic in the coming weeks as we dive deeper into the issue.”

A safe bet. I’ve reached out to Apple and ClearWire both and will update here if I hear back.