Author Archive: Gareth

Froyo 2.2 OTA update this morning

Froyo madness never ends.  Woke up this morning to an Android 2.2 OTA update. It’s another very small update (900k) and if you can’t wait for it to come OTA you can grab the update direct from Google HERE.  Not sure exactly what this has done to improve the OS but rumour has it they have jiggled around with the Wireless N feature.

I have noticed that the marketplace has been fixed and I can finally download all the apps I purchased.

As soon as we know more, or have a link to a version for non-stock users, we’ll sing out. [Handy-FAQ.de (in German), XDA Developers]

[Source Android Central]

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same— the iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Apple

Four million users will disconnect as mobile prices rise, says operator

Around four million mobile phone users will be forced to disconnect their mobile phones if Ofcom goes ahead with proposals to cut mobile termination rates, Vodafone warned today.

The warning comes as Ofcom moves to implement proposals to cut mobile termination rates (MTR) from 4.3 pence per minute (ppm) to 0.5 ppm between 2011 and 2015.

Vodafone chief Guy Lawrence warned: ‘Ofcom’s proposals to slash our incoming call revenues are likely to mean that low income families will start paying more to use their phones because the money we receive from incoming calls will disappear. 

‘This revenue has allowed us to support low spenders.  We see these proposals as unnecessary intervention which tax low income families and should be reconsidered.’

Vodafone argues that the cut would force operators to increase mobile prices.

Review: Sony Ericsson Aspen (Faith)

The Sony Ericsson Aspen (Faith) is a new Qwerty flavoured smartphone running, of all things, Windows Mobile 6.5.3. I’m guessing this might be the last Windows Mobile device I will review before Windows Phone 7 comes. How does it measure up in the this Android/iPhone/Blackberry heavy world?

iPhone 4 Sales Top 1.7 Million

Apple® today announced that it has sold over 1.7 million of its iPhone® 4 through Saturday, June 26, just three days after its launch on June 24. The new iPhone 4 features FaceTime®, which makes video calling as easy as one tap, and Apple’s new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in stunning text, images and video.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”

So really when you look at the facts it is no surprise that the ordering systems had a few teething problems, and for everyone that said Apple should have a system in place to handle the orders, I really don’t think it is possible to have a system in place to handle that sort of demand over such a short space of time.

Source Apple

HTC Vision the dual core smart phone

The rumours HTC Vision has had more speculation as some specification have dribbled onto the web. Whilst there is nothing to back it up there is one area that this might spark a little excitement. The device in question would have a 4.3-inch touchscreen, an 800MHz dual-core processor, Android 3.0, an 8-megapixel camera, and more. The device would be called the HTC Vision and it’s believed that this will almost certainly be what everyone’s referring to as “Project Emerald”.

[Source]

iPhone OS 4.01 out tomorrow?

Rumor has it that Apple will be releasing an update to iOS 4 as early as Monday to address this particular problem with the iPhone 4. iOS 4.01 was found referenced in a series of post in Apple’s tech support forums but has consequently been removed.

This does seem to be an issue that more so affects the US over the UK however there are cases in the UK.

[Source]

Google music service on it’s way

The Wall Street Journal reported some new details about the long-rumoured Google music service, this time with a tasty Android twist.

Google’s plan, it seems, is to launch a download service first — one that is tied to the company’s search engine — and then to progress to an online subscription service by 2011. The ultimate goal is to have a cloud-based subscription service that could stream directly to Android-based devices.
While rumours and reports about Google formally entering the music sales or subscriptions space have been ongoing for years, this time the talk might be for real. In October, Google launched its music discovery search features. At the time, we discussed its implications on the music business as a whole.

Additionally, VEVO (a partnership service between YouTube and Universal Records) has at least theoretically created better relationships between the major labels and the search giant. However, when trying to assess Google’s overall music strategy, Android appears poised to be the biggest catalyst.

Skyfire Launches Skyfire Browser 2.1 and Passes over 500,000 users on Android in first Six Weeks

Skyfire today releases version 2.1 of its Android browser. The enhancement provides increased stability as well as support for 750,000 additional websites for watching Flash video.

Since the launch of Skyfire for Android on April 29^th, Skyfire has added over 500,000 new users. In just six weeks, Skyfire activations have reached the top 0.7% among all the 65,000 apps on the Android Market.

Skyfire’s Cloud Solves Problems that Adobe Flash 10.1 Won’t
Skyfire enables Flash video from across the millions of web sites that use the popular Flash plug-in. Skyfire plays Flash video by transcoding video files into HTML5 in the cloud and optimizing them for mobile delivery. Skyfire’s cloud technology means videos play faster and smoother, with less buffering, less “stuttering”, and better battery life.

In a series of tests conducted by Skyfire, users were able to watch twice as many minutes of video per hour, and conserve 30% more battery life, when compared to native Flash 10.1 being released this week on a subset of Android phones. The vast majority of Flash video content on the internet is designed for desktop computers with high-speed connections. When it comes to mobile, this makes playback difficult, especially on crowded 3G networks. Skyfire’s cloud ensures that each video is adapted to the right bandwidth, as well as the right format to ensure hardware decoding, which saves battery and preserves video performance.