August 2009 - Posts
Is AT&T dropping Android from Motorola even before product launch?
When Motorola announces its new Android handsets at a scheduled Sept. 10 event in San Francisco, AT&T isn’t likely to be among their carriers. Sources close to the company tell MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen that AT&T (T) balked at Motorola’s Sawgrass and Heron handsets. Allegedly because of their dated display technology, the company has chosen not to carry them. That’s bad news for Motorola (MOT), which pinned its hopes of a turnaround on Google’s (GOOG) Android OS.
If it’s true, that’s more than bad news for Moto.
Source
Interesting article….and it’s ending up right where a lot of us thought it would…speculative at best. Emphasis mine…
"Over the last two or three years, WiMAX has gained a strong foothold in developing countries in which there is a need for broadband, but the fixed infrastructure is poor. However, Analysys Mason doubts that the developing market offers sufficient growth potential and size to sustain continued investment from such heavyweights as Cisco Systems, Intel and Motorola without additional sales in the developed markets. But in the developed markets of Europe and the USA, we see some early signs of a difficult future for WiMAX.
In the USA, Sprint is rolling out a national WiMAX network through its majority shareholding in Clearwire, but the growth in number of subscribers has been disappointing. Google and Intel, among others, have already written off billions of dollars they had invested in Clearwire. This does not look good for WiMAX. Also, it appears that the North American CDMA operators may move to LTE, rather than to WiMAX.
Ericsson's purchase of Nortel's interests in CDMA and LTE will encourage CDMA operators to shift to LTE, creating greater acceptance of LTE in North America. Huawei is strongly promoting LTE and has recently opened up a new LTE laboratory in Richardson, Texas, where operators can familiarise themselves with the technology.
We’re also in the market for a new “family” tent. Normally when we go camping, there is only 2-3 that go because of the boys ages. It’s normally a Scouting event, and with a Wolf, Bear and Webelos, they’re really in different age groups and activity schedules. If anyone out there is a camping freak, and can share some insight on tents, I welcome the input.
Really looking forward to this weekend. The boys and I are all heading out tomorrow for a three day camping, boating, and fishing weekend. No gadgets, no electricity, no laptop (ok…I may have a PDA or two with me…can’t completely cut off). The boys woke up this morning asking what time we’re leaving, so I know they can’t wait either. It’s our end of summer campout…where did the summer go?
Interesting list over at TechRepublic on 10 ways to get the most out of Bing.
Some of the features I wasn’t aware of. Just one of the “ways” posted:
Use it as a Decision Engine
Microsoft may be competing with Google by spending advertising dollars in the search universe, but it seems that the actual product has a slightly different aim. Microsoft is calling Bing a Decision Engine and positioning it as a new kind of tool, as described in this press release:
Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.
The next time you’re using the Web to make a decision about buying something, going somewhere, improving your health, or finding directions, give Bing a shot.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=957
The Microsoft Vine Beta connects you to the people and places you care about most, when it matters. Stay in touch with family and friends, be informed when someone needs help. Get involved to create great communities. Use alerts, reports and your personal dashboard to stay in touch, informed and involved.
Use the dashboard to know what’s happening. Information associated with the places you have chosen will appear on your map, including articles from 20,000 news and public safety sources. Information from people you care about, such as alerts and reports, will appear on the dashboard too. Send and receive alerts. Organize people into groups - the sports team you coach, people who live nearby, family far away, special friends, and emergency contacts. Each person defines how they want to receive alerts – through e-mail, a text message, or on their computer. Reach them quickly using alerts. Post reports. You decide what you want to share with whom, and then the information is sent directly to their personal dashboard. Check in safe and well to let your family know you are okay, let trusted neighbors know you’re headed out of town, keep people informed of situations that matter, or share general information like the team practice schedule for the week.
Microsoft Vine is currently a beta service, which means we need your feedback and ideas to make it great. Watch the video to learn more, then click "Get Started" to download Microsoft Vine now, for free.
Register to get in here: http://www.vine.net
Language(s):
English.
Product(s):
Windows Mobile.
Audience(s):
Pro Dev/Programmer.
Duration:
60 Minutes
Start Date:
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Event Overview
In part two of this webcast series, we dive into more detail about the gesture APIs that are available on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. We show you how you can make use of the Gesture API when creating your managed applications, and we work through the code samples and a sample library that simplify the access to these gesture APIs.
Presenter: Alex Yakhnin, Senior Consultant, Microsoft Corporation
Alex Yakhnin is a senior mobility consultant for the Global Mobility Practices group at Microsoft. His team is focused on building large-scale mobile applications and services for enterprises and mobile operators. Prior to his work with Microsoft, Alex was the architect and developer of small and large systems for many financial companies. He has written a number of MSDN articles, and for many years Alex has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Microsoft .NET Compact Framework/Device Application Development and a part of the OpenNETCF initiative.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032422150&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=USRegister
Language(s):
English.
Product(s):
Windows Mobile.
Audience(s):
Pro Dev/Programmer.
Duration:
60 Minutes
Start Date:
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Event Overview
In this webcast, we introduce you to the new gesture APIs that are available on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 platform. We demonstrate how you can make use of the gesture APIs when creating your managed applications, and we work through the code samples and a sample library that will simplify the access to the gesture APIs.
Presenter: Alex Yakhnin, Senior Consultant, Microsoft Corporation
Alex Yakhnin is a senior mobility consultant for the Global Mobility Practices group at Microsoft. His team is focused on building large-scale mobile applications and services for enterprises and mobile operators. Prior to his work with Microsoft, Alex was the architect and developer of small and large systems for many financial companies. He has written a number of MSDN articles, and for many years Alex has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Microsoft .NET Compact Framework/Device Application Development and a part of the OpenNETCF initiative.
Register
CBS News has published a nice summary of battle between Apple and Google, “War In The Valley: Apple vs. Google”. There are some fairly keen insights posted to what is going on.
It was long overdue: Eric Schmidt (Google's CEO) finally resigned from Apple's Board of Directors. Usually, these resignations are handled in the smoothest of ways: Thanks for the distinguished service and the like. This time, Steve Jobs issued a pointed statement: "Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest." Full officialese here.
Then, the post addresses Google’s strategy, and some insights in to that.
A new Microsoft attacking both iPhones and Macs. And, unlike Microsoft, with free software. That's what Apple sees in Google.
But, wait, there is more!
Apple's business model is bound to change. In plainer English: Until recently, Apple's profits were built on hardware sales. Everything else, system software or iTunes music revenue only mattered as a way to buttress hardware profits. For example, when iTunes came out, analysts expressed concern that music margins were thin or negative. So what? iTunes's sole role is to prop up iPod and iPhones margins. Apple talks up its software, operating system and applications, spends hundreds of millions of dollars in development and generates modest or no direct revenue from it. It's all in the service of Mac and iPhone sales and profit margins. That's the picture so far, fast becoming the past.
With the iPhone, Apple hasn't just broken into a new product category, it has shouldered its way into a new world of service revenues. Legally call it the way you want, the difference between the retail price of an iPhone, $199, and the pathologists' number, $850, is a service revenue. According to other dissectors, the manufacturing cost of an iPhone would be about $179. So, the retail price covers the product cost, all the margin comes from the service revenue rebated by AT&T. That's a business model change - and for the largest business unit.
It will definitely be a year to watch. Great read.
Say what? According to a post over on CNET:
A judge on Tuesday ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word, one of its premier products, in its current form due to patent infringement.
Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML," according to a statement released by attorneys for the plantiff, i4i.
Microsoft did not immediately reply to request for comment but said in a statement that it planned to appeal the verdict.
Toronto-based i4i sued Microsoft in March 2007 alleging that the Redmond,Wash.-based software giant violated its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) for a document system that eliminated the need for manually embedded formatting codes.
XML--an integral feature in Microsoft Word--is considered a "page description language," with one of its key qualities being that it is readable by people, not just machines. Unlike HTML, which has predefined tags, XML allows developers and users to define their own tags for data, such as price and product.
I don’t see that happening anytime soon…the lawyers at MS will be busy for awhile…
Sprint Nextel Corp. is expanding its high-speed wireless broadband service to 17 new cities by the end of the year.
The markets in Texas, Washington, Hawaii, Idaho, North Carolina and Oregon join the previously announced markets of Atlanta;, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., Philadelphia and Seattle.
Sprint on Tuesday said it plans to sell the service in Boston, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., next year.
Source
DVICE has posted a nice summary of available Wi-Fi on airlines. Hit the link for the full summary.
According to recent Gartner reports,
Pretty decent job of Nokia holding the top position despite the iPhone hype. I’m also surprised RIM improved market share. I’ll bet it’s all consumers, not within the enterprise.
Per the WSJ:
Microsoft Corp. has reached an agreement with Nokia Corp. to make a mobile version of Microsoft's Office suite of software that works on Nokia cellphones, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The deal with Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, could help Microsoft play a broader role in mobile devices while fortifying its Office business in the face of competition from free Web-based word processors, spreadsheets and other applications from Google Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and others. Microsoft, too, is testing a Web-based version of Office.
The alliance between Nokia and Microsoft is another sign that the two companies, once fierce competitors, are coming closer together as mutual threats have emerged. Microsoft makes an operating system for cellphones called Windows Mobile that competes with Symbian, the software that powers most Nokia phones.
But both companies have lost some of their luster in the mobile market with the advent of new technologies like Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry and Google's Android. Last year, Microsoft and Nokia cut a deal that made it easier for users of Nokia phones to access email on corporate networks running Microsoft's Exchange software.
Makes you wonder how DataViz, the makers of Docs-To-Go, will take the news.
The latest Windows Mobile 6.1 device has hit T-Mobile.
| Feature | Description |
| Windows Mobile® | Familiar and easy to use Windows Mobile® experience |
| Touch screen | Everything your phone can do is now literally at your fingertips. A high resolution touch screen gives you fast and fun access to your phone's display. |
| 3G | T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G data network delivers the ultimate mobile Web experience in several metropolitan areas |
| 3.2 Megapixel camera with Video Capture | Capture special moments as photos or video clips. View them later on your phone, print them out or share them with family and friends by sending them to any e-mail address, T-Mobile camera phone. |
| QWERTY keyboard | The built-in familiar layout lets you type messages easily without searching for the letter you want. |
| Voice dialing | Call someone with simple voice commands to keep your hands free for activities like driving. |
| E-mail* | Send and receive messages from personal and work e-mail. |
| Text messaging* | The quick, quiet way to stay connected. |
| Video Messaging | Use your phone to capture your favorite moments on video, then share them instantly with your friends and family. |
| Picture messaging* | Send pictures from your phone to others. |
| Stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology | Connect your phone to your computer or stereo headset without any wires. |
| Real web browsing* | Get more pages and better Web content delivered efficiently to your phone. |
| Music player | Play your favorite music wherever you are. |
| Micro SD memory slot | Add more memory for multimedia files, data, and more. |
| Easily synch w/ Microsoft Outlook | Stay in synch with your Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks in Microsoft Outlook |
| Instant messaging capable | Send and receive instant messages easily. |
Unfortunately, T-Mobile wants $350 with a 2-year commitment. That’s not happening these days. That’s way too much. More details and info here.