Bencredible

2010 may not be a great year for AT&T. While they have seen fantastic growth since the release of the iPhone, I believe their exclusive contract expires this year. Of course another hot phone consumers want and AT&T has is the… uh… nothing.

Today Google announced the Nexus One which will work on T-Mobile and soon Verizon. While you can get voice and EDGE access on AT&T there is no subsidized price and no 3G access for AT&T users. All the cool phones are going to Verizon and T-Mobile!

While all cell phone carriers are terrible, AT&T has some serious issues on the coasts where user density is highest. I was recently in California and needed to browse the web on my iPhone. Let me tell you what wasn’t working. Oh sure, I had full bars but there was no bandwidth to be had. It was the most painful experience I have ever had on a mobile device. So painful that I went to a Verizon store and purchased a MiFi so I could have working WiFi access. I actually kept that MiFi (a device that AT&T also does not carry) and we use it for remote Spacevidcast shoots at KSC and Space View Park. You can bet that many users on the coasts are with AT&T because they want the cool phone. But what happens when that cool phone is no longer locked to AT&T or worse yet not even available on AT&T?

I think 2010 will be the year that users flee AT&T en masse for other providers. They have been riding off the iPhone success for too long and not been able to keep up with demand. In the end I think the iPhone will have ended up hurting AT&T more than helping them. They now have a reputation that is soiled and it will take a miracle or two to put them back on top.

I’m considering dumping AT&T for a T-Mobile Nexus One. I’m concerned about T-Mobiles terrible 3G maps though. What do you think? I already have a AT&T account and a Verizon account… Maybe adding T-Mobile isn’t a bad idea. I do utilize each network quite a bit as I am a bleeding edge adopter. I used to have a Sprint account, but, well they can’t seem to do anything right anymore.

Comments?

I am currently pissed at Apple and the iPhone, more specifically the inability to get Google Voice on my iPhone and the lame App Store policies.  My next phone? I’m going to have to guess… oh, I don’t know… THIS ONE!!!

A while ago I had a Dash GPS unit for review. The concept was simple: a GPS unit that had an anywhere, always-on Internet connection that allowed them to gather road conditions from all Dash users and route everyone based on that data. If I’m stuck in traffic Dash would know that and re-route other commuters based on my data. User generated road conditions. Alas the Dash device was large, expensive, buggy and never really did what users wanted. They were purchased by Nokia and seem to be all but gone.

Now we have Waze which does much the same thing. Based on your driving conditions you can get re-routed to your destination. But Waze takes this several steps further and in a much better direction (pun intended).

First off, Waze is free! That’s right, you can get a GPS routing system that has turn-by-turn directions for the low, low cost of zero. They are able to do this in part because Waze runs on your existing Smartphone such as an iPhone or Andoid phone. Which brings me to…

Second, Waze does not require special hardware. If you have your iPhone on you, then you have your GPS nav system with you too. This makes it far easier to make sure you always have available traffic data. Waze is available in the Apple App store right now and I believe you can get it for Android right now too. I think they are working on a Windows Mobile and Symbian version too, I guess we’ll see.

Third, Waze is more social. In addition to being able to mark points on maps, fix road issues and add traffic problems you can also add things such as hazards, police traps and pictures. Every time you add something be it driving the road or fixing part of the map you get points. These points then add up to… well I have no idea, but you get points. Makes it in to a bit of a competition and is a fun incentive to keep the app open when you’re just driving, even if you don’t need directions.

I should point out that this is an alpha stage project and as such has some issues.  In my testing the routing needed a lot of love, there are no voice prompts so you always have to look at the unit and the icons on the map are a bit confusing. What is the difference between the blue car, white ghost looking thing and green arrow?  I have no idea, but it would switch between these icons from time to time while I was driving. The awarded points don’t update in real time so you may have to wait a couple of days to see where you’re at. Small things like these.

Nevertheless, Waze is a very cool app that gets more and more powerful as additional users get on the Waze network. This was ultimately the main cause of the demise of Dash, they were never able to reach critical mass. When it comes to social road networks, the more cars on the network, the more valuable it will be. With the app being available on the iPhone for free, I think Waze can do what Dash was unable to: build an intelligent GPS navigation system that allows me to find the quickest and easiest path to my destination. I am excited to see where this service goes! Worth the download, even in the Alpha stage. Hopefully the bugs can be worked out and we’ll end up with what Dash originally promised, but bigger, badder, better and free-er.

I think Apple had it right back in the iPhone 1.0 days: Apps are web sites. Conventional wisdom would say that I’m wrong, I mean look at the popularity of the App store. However, iPhone apps are just that: applications for the iPhone (and sometimes the iPod Touch.)  What about all the other devices out there?

In an ideal world I could develop an application for the web and have it deploy to any mobile device from an iPhone to a Blackberry to a Windows Mobile device. The web browsers in these devices are actually quite powerful. Take a look at Google Latitude to see what I mean.

The problem is that since we have native apps there is little to no reason to develop a standard to pull the device hardware forward to the web browser. If I want to develop an application that can utilize the tilt sensors in an iPhone and a Blackberry I would have to write different code for each. That’s not the ideal solution. Each device should be able to present its hardware to the browser in a standard way that anyone can take advantage of. And nearly all hardware should be available from the on-board sensors, GPS, phone, ambient light sensor, etc., etc.

Looking at 99% of the iPhone apps out there I see little to no work that could not be done in the browser should they be able to take advantage of all the hardware. The final piece of the puzzle is an offline mode for apps that require heavy animations for weather and whatnot that allow the app to run even when there is no bandwidth. A giant cache folder as it were.

This is a bit of an idealistic view of how things should run. Apple already tried it once and failed. I don’t think they were wrong, I just think they were early without enough tools. Hopefully someone will try again but this time make it a standard that will work on any device with a webkit browser at its core.

There is one aspect that I have not figured out how to run in a browser: 3d games.  I have yet to figure out a workaround for those.

What do you think?  Am I crazy or could this someday be the future of mobile computing?

The promise of satellite phones to replace cellular phones has been around for years and has never come to fruition. There are many issues with satellite phones that make the cellular network a better idea, the biggest of which is capacity. On a cell network all I need to do is add an additional tower and I add a bunch of capacity. With satellite when I run out of capacity, I’m screwed.

Nevertheless I still believe that satellite telecom has its place and could eventually overtake terrestrial cell towers. Satellite has a huge advantage over cell which is coverage. One satellite can cover an entire continent whereas one cell tower only covers around 20 miles or so. I could drive coast to coast with a Satellite phone, but not with a cell phone.

How many users need to drive coast to coast? Not very many. But you may notice that your service varies greatly even in your own city as you drive around and bounce from tower to tower. This is where satellite phone service can revolutionize mobile phone service. No matter where you go you would always have full bars, so long as you never go indoors.

So why don’t we have satellite phones everywhere today? Well, several reasons. The phones are large and bulky. The antennae is amazingly huge and ugly. The cost is extremely high to make a single phone call. The devices don’t work indoors. It just is not as refined a technology as cellular. At this point satellite won’t be a viable option for, well, much of anyone.

Enter TerreStar.

TerreStar is getting ready to launch their next generation satellite phone network. Much like how the Globalstar network was designed, the TerreStar network is not just satellite but a combination of satellite and cellular. In the US if you have AT&T service the phone will connect to that and make the call there. If you’re out of AT&T range or need a little love the TerreStar phone will connect to the satellite network. This is all great, but as I mentioned Globalstar already did this (with Verizon rather than AT&T.) Where TerreStar differs is that their phone looks like any other smartphone. No huge ugly antennae.

Will this service trump current cellular service?  At first, no. Satellite needs to be priced properly and add enough advantage to overtake cellular. As the service is proven it could supplement traditional cell service. If TerreStar is able to find a way to penetrate buildings, we could have a complete replacement to cellular on the horizon here. Just as people moved from telegraph to corded phones then to wireless phones and on to cell phones, it is completely possible they will move from cell phones to satellite phones.

That’s not what excites me though. Imagine a global network in which Apple can control the entire experience. The device works anywhere on  the planet except the poles. Indoors, outdoors. No roaming, no long distance. A universal smartphone, an iPhone, that works anywhere on the device manufacturers terms. The only thing missing is the bandwidth which as I understand it is around 600Kbps. Very fast for satellite but a far cry from the 7.2Mbps next generation network AT&T is installing.

It is possible we’re witnessing a complete revolution in wireless phone technology. How cool is that?

A while back I made a post on TechnologyEvangelist.com talking about how I was a Technoholic. I came to this conclusion because I buy a lot of technology right as it comes out, which is probably the worst time to buy.

The Palm Pre release is imminent and as such I started thinking about how I would acquire one.  Then I started wondering why.  I have an iPhone, I really like my iPhone and I have no need for a Pre.  The Sprint network does not work in my house and I’m still in an AT&T contract.  What benefit would a Palm Pre bring me?

As I pondered this I realized that I’m not a technoholic but rather an infoholic.  The reason I buy this technology is because I like to know first hand what it is and isn’t good at, how it performs in real life situations and if I can suggest it to other people.  I become the go-to guy for all things tech because *I* have the information on the technology.  Not just information based on reviews and other users opinions, first hand opinions.  I love having the info, but I’m too stupid to monetize that information.  Information is power, duh!

Reviews and opinions are great although usually too shallow.  When people talk about the iPhone keyboard and they mention how much it sucks, but they don’t mention that after you learn to use it you can type very quickly on it, although rarely one handed and rarely in a car.  They forget to mention that because it is virtual they can do a lot more in that space than they could with a physical keyboard.  These details are usually left out of the reviews and instead all we get to read is, “keyboard sucks”.  So here I am, eager for the real life scoop on the products, paying for all of them out-of-pocket and not making anything in return.  Seems to be a bad habit of mine.

In the end it comes down to wanting the most information possible and I have found that to be an expensive habit.  When it comes to the Palm Pre I may just have to leave it to my friends at TreoCentral.com to review it for me and just trust that the tools I’m using today and good enough.

As a final note, I hope Apple learns a bit about the cool factor that Palm is bringing to the table such as wireless power, unified address books from Exchange to Facebook, community networking, background apps and understanding that an incoming phone call or SMS message shouldn’t abruptly stop whatever it is I’m doing!

The wife and I got iPhones yesterday. Cariann decided to wait to open hers to make sure that she really did want it. Hey, it’s an expensive device, but worth every penny. I have a couple of articles going through review for TechnologyEvangelist.com that talk about the device and techie stuff behind it.

I’m starting to wonder what the heck I’m going to do about video on Apple devices. Yeah they support one CODEC (h.264) which is nice, but they also have about 3000 different resolutions and settings for different devices. I just want one feed to rule them all. GAH! It’s 4:30am and I can’t sleep because I just keep trying to figure out the best way to make this work without diluting our feeds.