Mobile Tech Today

Microsoft Says Battery Woes Not Caused By Windows 7

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:58:09 -0500

Battery problems on Windows 7 machines are not caused by the operating system. That's the position of Stephen Sinofsky, head of the Windows division, in a long posting Monday on the Windows engineering blog.

"At this time," he wrote, "we have no reason to believe there is any issue related to Windows 7 in this context." He acknowledged reports in the press and in forums about faulty battery warnings and batteries failing. "In every case we have been able to identify," Sinofsky added, "the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement."

'Accurately Detected a Failing Battery'

Sinofsky said that the company has been contacting customers who report issues in forums, monitoring customer-service communications, keeping in touch with PC makers, and utilizing opt-in, anonymous "telemetry in Windows 7" to keep track of the situation. In all cases investigated, he wrote, "Windows 7 has simply accurately detected a failing battery."

One factor Sinofsky emphasized is that there is a new battery notification in Windows 7 not available in Vista or Windows XP. The notification, with a battery meter icon and the message "Consider replacing your battery," appears when the battery is performing at 40 percent of its designated capacity. He noted that some customers upgrading a PC to Windows 7 did not know the battery was degrading until 7 offered this new level of notification.

He pointed out that PC batteries, through the hardware and the BIOS firmware, offer several read-only fields of information about the battery, including manufacturer, serial number, design capacity, and last full charge capacity. Sinofsky added that this information "is read-only and there is no way for Windows 7 or any other OS to write, set or configure battery status information."

'The Answer Is RIGHT THERE!'

But user complaints continue to populate the Microsoft support forum, where the issue has...

Google's Nexus One 'Support' Mostly Passes the Buck

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:29:27 -0500

Need support for Google's Nexus One smartphone? You can finally call Google directly -- but you might not get all the answers you're looking for.

A month after launching its so-called "superphone," Google on Monday began offering a dedicated phone support line for Nexus One customers. Consumers can call 888-48NEXUS from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. PST to speak with a live support operator, but they may get directed elsewhere.

Google is giving directions on four types of questions via the old-fashioned telephone: Existing order status and shipping queries, technical support, repair and return issues, and T-Mobile service issues.

Customers seeking order status and shipping times need to have their 15-digit order number in hand and Google will dig up the information. However, Google is pointing customers in need of technical support or repairs and returns to phone maker HTC. And customers who have questions about their wireless service are being ushered to T-Mobile. So actually, the only service Google is providing is for status and shipping updates.

Customer Complaints Continue

Google is moving to address the negative publicity around its smartphone. Shortly after launch, customers began complaining about spotty reception and early cancellation fees. After hundreds of complaints on its forum, Google said it was aware of the issues that it said affected a small number of users and planned to fix the problem.

Google later came out with a fix and has lowered early termination fees from $350 to $150. But the memories remain and the complaints about lack of support continued. Google sells the Nexus One via an online store that, until Monday, only offered support through customer forums.

Those forums are still up and running and still still show problems ranging from spotty 3G coverage to touchscreen problems to missing audio on Bluetooth pairing to camera problems. The list goes...

Analysts See iPad Price Drop, with Some Cannibalization

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:27:43 -0500

Just weeks before Apple officially rolls out the iPad, financial analysts are making pricing predictions. But could the analysis itself hinder the initial demand for the pricey tablet computer?

The much-anticipated iPad is priced at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, and $699 for the 64GB model -- all available in March. The 3G models won't be available until April and will sell for $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model.

Credit Suisse analysts said Apple will stay "nimble" with its pricing strategy and may even discount the devices if customers aren't buying. Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, sees irony in the reports: The comments could actually cause the result.

The Pricing Graveyard

"We certainly saw people rush out initially and buy the iPhone. When the demand dropped off after the first couple of weeks, Apple dropped the price sharply," Enderle said. "Of course, the iPhone over time has gone from about $600 to around $200, which is a fairly substantial drop in price."

Enderle predicts the iPad will go through a similar price drop, but adds that the coverage of Apple's willingness to stay nimble may actually slow initial sales -- especially among consumers who feel burned by buying the first iPhone too quickly.

"The $600 price range has been a graveyard for products, starting with the original iPod, which had to drop its price point very rapidly, all the way to the Sony PS3, which also died at that price point," Enderle said. "I expect they will drop out of that price area fairly quickly."

The Cannibalization Question

Will the iPad cannibalize Apple's other product lines? In a publicized note, Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope indicated cannibalization is not as large a concern as some may believe because there is...

Nook E-Reader Heads to Barnes & Noble Stores

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:55:35 -0500

Barnes & Noble said Monday that its popular nook e-book reader is back in stock online and will be rolling out in the majority of the bookseller's U.S. stores this week. Customers also will be able to enjoy exclusive Valentine's Day-themed online content this month, the company said.

The nook differs in several ways from many of the e-readers announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, which suffer from either high prices or little access to consumer channels, said Forrester Research Vice President James McQuivey.

"The nook, despite its slow start, is priced right, targeted to book readers rather than skipping off to focus on magazine or newspaper readers, and, most importantly, the nook will be featured in front of millions of book buyers every month as they walk through the store," McQuivey said. "You can't underestimate the power of that."

A Real Shot at No. 3

The nook is the first e-reader to offer digital lending for a wide selection of e-books, and the company's latest software update now places a LendMe flag next to the eligible e-books in the user's My Library folder. Though the machine's LendMe technology only applies to select books and only lasts 14 days, McQuivey considers this to be a huge step forward, given that people often share books and then spend a considerable amount of time talking about them with friends and family members.

"This fact is so critical to the way people read books that it is amazing that none of the e-readers yet offered to the market have any meaningful book sharing built into them," McQuivey wrote in a blog.

Among all the e-reader launches beyond Sony and Amazon, McQuivey thinks the nook has a real shot at becoming the third key player -- but not because of its social features.

"The social features...

Survey Suggests iPad Blitz Hasn't Won Over Buyers

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:26:46 -0500

The good news for Apple is that it has clearly accomplished its objective of getting the word out about its new iPad tablet computer. The media blitz that began weeks before CEO Steve Jobs' Jan. 27 launch in San Francisco garnered front-page coverage in 47 states and 24 countries. So you'd practically have had to turn off your TV and computer and avoid newspapers to not know about it.

The bad news is that with about a month until the product starts shipping, people aren't likely to line up to get their hands on an iPad, according to a follow-up survey from Retrevo Pulse.

No, Thanks

The company's survey of 1,000 people found that the number who had heard of the iPad nearly doubled from 48 percent in the days before the launch to 80 percent in the Jan. 27-Feb. 3 period immediately following. But the number of those who knew about it but were not interested doubled from 26 percent to 52 percent. The number of definite buyers rose from three to nine percent.

The participants are users of Retrevo's electronic marketplace. The number of people who were hiding under a rock and hadn't heard of the iPad shrank from 35 percent to just 18 percent, but the number of people taking a wait-and-see attitude was statistically unchanged, from 19 to 21 percent.

A ChangeWave Research survey released about the same time found that just 14 percent of respondents said they were likely to buy the device. Both surveys found that a majority would not pay more than $700 for the iPad.

So when Jobs announced that the price point for the basic iPad model was $499, some boost in interest might have been expected.

But after learning the price and many features, the number of people who said they didn't feel they need an...

Is Deutsche Telekom Mulling a T-Mobile Public Offering?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:28:40 -0500

Deutsche Telekom is said to be considering strategic options for its troubled U.S. unit. The company may find its choices limited amid heightened competition in the wireless industry and tepid demand among investors.

The German telecommunications provider is considering an initial public offering for T-Mobile USA, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg News.

Fund managers may balk at buying stock in T-Mobile USA, which lost customers and suffered a sales decline in the third quarter, says Tim Gilbert, a senior analyst at Principal Global Investors in Des Moines, which oversees about $215 billion of assets.

T-Mobile has struggled to attract high-value smartphone customers who have flocked to Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the largest U.S. mobile-phone service providers. Now T-Mobile is left tussling for less-valuable users with Sprint Nextel and MetroPCS, Gilbert says. "DT should have done this [IPO] two or three years ago," he says. "But they are now competing on the low end of the customer base."

Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest phone company, hasn't yet decided on a U.S. strategy and it's too early to say whether an IPO is on the cards, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.

Fresh Postpaid Subscribers Are Scarce

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless company behind Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint Nextel, lost 77,000 customers in the third quarter, when its sales fell 2.4 percent to $5.38 billion from a year earlier. While results may have improved in the fourth quarter, when many consumers buy mobile phones, challenges will persist in the U.S., where more than 90 percent of the population is already equipped with mobile phones.

Carriers are forced to compete for customers by cutting prices and thereby eroding revenue. The industrywide base of so-called postpaid subscribers, who purchase wireless service on contract and are considered more valuable to carriers, may...

To Love or Not To Love: Apple iPad Pros and Cons

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:29:02 -0500

Now that the iPad has officially been announced, opinions are rolling in on this device that combines the features of an iPod, e-reader, and tablet PC. One common theme is that the device, available starting in late March, will turn fewer heads than the iPhone. Those hoping for a stylish replacement for a laptop are also probably feeling let down.

At just 13.4 millimeters at its widest, the iPad is thin. Weighing 680 grammes, it's also lighter than traditional mobile computers. It uses the same operating system (OS) as the iPhone. The iPad is controlled using a touch-sensitive 9.7-inch display with energy-saving LED backlighting.

Because Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch already enjoy a leading position in the world of touch-controlled devices, the iPad can reasonably be expected to provide an intuitive user interface. It comes equipped with WLAN and a UMTS option is also available. Customers have free choice of wireless data providers in countries that use UMTS cards.

Owners of the iPad can access videos and music on the iTunes Store and use the new iBookstore to load content onto the device. Apple's success is based on the close links between the software and hardware -- and this concept is continued on the iPad as well.

Yet therein lies a potential disadvantage, as well: the iPad, like so many of Apple's products, is proprietary inside and out. Owners cannot use any application from any source they want for their iPad. As with the iPhone, the App Store is the only game in town. That said, almost "all 140,000 programs in the App Store" will work on the iPad.

Mobile computers with touchscreens but without keyboards are not inherently new. Tablet PCs, as they are known, usually work with Windows as their OS. They've also tended to be niche products to date, "such as for...

With No Killer App, Apple's iPad Is a Hard Sell

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:53:33 -0500

With the introduction of the iPad, Apple's status as a cultural icon reached new heights. Based on an unscientific survey of newspapers archived by The Newseum, pictures of or stories about the tablet-style computer appeared on front pages in at least 47 states and the District of Columbia and no fewer than 24 countries on six continents -- in places as varied as Bulgaria, Uruguay, Turkey, and Portugal.

When is the last time you saw a company command that kind of attention without first filing for bankruptcy, contributing to the collapse of the global financial system, or building a car with a gas pedal that sticks? The media's crush on Apple is not just alive and well, but it has gone global.

In the last decade, Apple has revolutionized the music and wireless industries with its iPod and iPhone, respectively. The recent buzz around Apple reflects high hopes that with the iPad, Apple can similarly transform a third industry: publishing. But based on early reviews, the iPad as introduced may not deliver.

Newspapers look to the iPad to reinvigorate their rapidly shrinking industry by spurring demand for whiz-bang downloadable applications that feature content you can't get on the Web. Book publishers see the iPad as a vehicle to stimulate buying of electronic books and fuel competition that forces e-book leader Amazon to give publishers more leeway on pricing. Software developers who have been successful selling apps on the iPhone hope to cash in even more on new ones that take advantage of the iPad's larger screen.

Challenge of Building a New Market

Yet it's hard to see how the iPad, in the form unveiled last month, will come close to transforming daily life as much as the iPod or iPhone. When the iPod arrived in 2001, consumers were already well-acquainted with personal music players...

Bar Codes Go Mobile, Get Hip Again

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:01:59 -0500

Bar codes are getting hip. For decades, retailers and manufacturers have used these patterns of black dots, lines, and squares to encode pricing and other data onto products and supplies. Now, bar codes are gaining currency as an easy way for cell-phone users to view ads, coupons, and other information instantly.

The Weather Channel is using bar codes to deliver maps, forecasts, and severe weather alerts. Universal Pictures is using mobile bar codes to promote its coming thriller Repo Men. Later this month, a Hearst magazine will use the technology to provide additional information to readers. And mobile bar code technology in various forms has recently been used by search engine owner Google, Web portal Yahoo!, sportswear maker Nike, and packaged foods maker Frito-Lay.

In Japan, advertisers for years have used bar code technology on magazines, posters, products, tourist sites, and business cards to deliver information wirelessly. But the features can be glitchy or cumbersome and haven't taken off in the U.S.

Microsoft and a handful of startups including Scanbuy and JagTag are trying to turn the tide. On Feb. 2, Motorola was among a group of investors that made an undisclosed investment in Scanbuy. Bar code tech "makes the world [around us] clickable," says Marja Koopman, a marketing leader at Microsoft. Lately, bar code scanning is being more widely used in part due to the broader adoption of Web-enabled smartphones and prevalence of cameras, now in about 90 percent of cell phones.

Special Software or Just the Camera

In the case of the Weather Channel, viewers hold their cell phones up to the TV screen to scan a bar code displayed at various points throughout the day. The feature, which works with handsets including the Motorola Droid and Google's Nexus One, downloads one of the Weather Channel's mobile apps. Since the TV promotion...

'Dead Simple, Dirt Cheap' JooJoo Tablet Shipping Soon

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:58:26 -0500

The JooJoo, a Web-browsing tablet device that is the subject of a high-profile Silicon Valley legal dispute, appears on track to reach early buyers at the end of February.

The flat touch-screen computer was known until December as the CrunchPad, after the technology blog TechCrunch. It was born from a post by the blog's well-connected and outspoken founder, Michael Arrington, that called for collaborators on a "dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen Web tablet."

Singapore-based Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan stepped up. His software startup, Fusion Garage, worked with Arrington and his team until November. At that point the project imploded, with Fusion Garage announcing it would sell the device under a new name -- and without Arrington's involvement.

Despite a federal lawsuit filed by Arrington, Rathakrishnan said Wednesday that production of the JooJoo is under way. CSL Group, a Malaysia-based mobile phone and netbook maker, is subsidizing production costs in exchange for an undisclosed revenue share, Rathakrishnan said.

Arrington is seeking damages and to keep Fusion Garage from selling or profiting from the JooJoo device. His lawyer didn't return a message seeking comment about whether they might take further legal action.

CSL, which makes Blackberry-like phones it calls "Blueberry," will also be an investor in the startup's next round of funding, expected to close in the next two weeks. Late last year, Fusion Garage said it raised $3 million in a first round.

In an interview, Rathakrishnan would not say how many people pre-ordered the $499 tablet. But "a good part" of those who did will receive their devices at the end of this month, he said.

The tablet landscape has changed dramatically since the JooJoo was first unveiled. At the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and others presented tablet prototypes. Less than a month later, Apple Inc. took the wraps off a...