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All the entries posted in March.
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Home > Plugged In > Archives > 2008 > March
March 2008
AT&T reduces penalty for ending cell contract early
AT&T is doing its best to become more user-friendly.
So today it announced a new policy for early contract termination.
Most of us buy a new mobile phone at a discount by extending our service contract by two years. If we break that contract with AT&T, it will cost us $175.
Beginning May 25, the fee will drop by $5 a month for the term of the contract. It’s not much, but it’s something.
Too bad it doesn’t count for contracts made or renewed before May 25.
AT&T might be trying to pre-empt the Cell Phone Empowerment Act, a bill that mandates prorated early termination fees, Arstechnica.com points out.
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Who’s your buddy? (Where’s your buddy?)
Location-based services, as they’re called, are some of the hottest things going in cell phones these days. Expect to hear plenty about ways to use your cell phone for mapping-related tasks at the annual CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas next week (which my colleague David Ho and I will be covering for this blog and for our newspapers).
Friday, Verizon beat the rush and announced it is teaming up with a Silicon Valley company called Loopt to offer a new $3.99-a-month service that lets users check a simple mapping service to see where friends in their address book are at any time. From there, they can swap messages on what they’re doing, where they’re going and how to hook up. Sprint started offering the service last year.
Of course such a system is full of potential privacy concerns - and of course, Verizon and Loopt say not to worry about stuff like that. The service is 100 percent permission-based, they point out, and users can turn the location-sharing feature off anytime they want. Check here for more information.
I can see the potential and the pitfalls to such a service. I don’t know how many times I’ve worriedly tried to reach my wife while she was driving somewhere, only to get her voicemail. And while my kids aren’t old enough to have cell phones yet, in the future I’d love to be able to track where they - or at least their phones - are.
But then again, do I really want my boss to know that I’m working at the beach today? (Just kidding, Art. Really. As far as you know).
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Netflix crashes but the web site returns with refund offer
Netflix can’t afford a mistake like this. It’s got plenty of competition to fend off on a good day.
Tuesday, though, was a bad day. The online movie subscription service was unable to mail thousands of DVDs to its subscribers because of a systems glitch.
MediaPost found one subscriber who hadn’t even noticed the problem. But the Netflix site was down for 11 hours so somebody noticed.
Still, it’s good to come clean. Plus the 5-percent refund that comes with next month’s statement should help to keep subscribers from switching to Blockbuster Online, Intelliflix.com and other movie rental sites.
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Moto splits up
The Razr just isn’t as sharp as it used to be.
Motorola Inc. announced today that it is splitting its company in two, separating its mobile handset division that makes the Razr and all those other cellular handsets from the rest of its business of television set-top boxes, broadband equipment and other devices.
The move comes as Moto is under pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn to do something to improve its stock price. Icahn, who owns about 6 percent of the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company’s shares, sued Moto earlier this week to get documents in what could prelude to a proxy fight.
Four years ago, Motorola went through a similar divestiture, spinning off its semiconductor business. Today, that business is Austin, Texas-based Freescale Semiconductor.
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Google offers search-within-a-search function, wants TV white space
In its quest to take over the digital world, Google has begun a search-within-a-search function that will bring up sites for competing companies in secondary searches.
The change has the effect of continuing a search, thereby moving additional advertising revenue to Google from those searches. But it also may take the user off the original site.
Separately, Google is again pushing the use of unlicensed, unused airwaves known as TV “white space” for more widespead, affordable use of the Internet, the New York Times says.
Both of these ideas seems good for users. Greater search options in the first instance and more broadband access in the second. But both also offer greater revenue for Google, so let’s not give the Internet-search giant too much credit for thinking of its users first.
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Research firm says PC shipments will rise, but…
Gartner Inc. today lowered its forecast for PC-shipment growth and said a weaker global economy could curb gains even further.
The technology research firm dropped its 2008 growth forecast to 10.9 percent, down from its December estimate of an 11.6 percent increase. It now estimates PC makers will ship 293 million units this year.
Gartner said strong sales of notebook PCs and the robust growth in emerging markets such as China and India will continue to fuel worldwide shipments. The firm also said a new wave of desktop-computer replacements by commercial customers could begin in earnest later this year.
The PC market is basically in good shape, said George Shiffler, a Gartner research manager, in a release. “However,” he said, “a deepening U.S. recession, the rising possibility of a sharp slowdown in China’s economy following the Beijing Olympics and the elevated price of oil mean global PC shipments face increasing economic headwinds.”
If those issues play out, Shiffler said, shipment growth rates could hold to the single digits.
Falling prices and the heavier use of PCs in day-to-day life has helped soften the impact of economic slowdowns on computer sales, Shiffler said. But, he said, “PCs are still far from being completely recession-proof.”
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John Mayer’s guitar works better than his iPod
John Mayer may be great with an acoustic guitar but he’s not any luckier with his iPod than the rest of us.
Gizmodo.com got a copy of his technical report to Apple on his iPod crashing while trying to download some new tunes. Poor guy, he had to wor kout with the same old songs.
“Nothing’s worse than running to stale music in your iPod, am I right. I mean, I love “Bittersweet Symphony” as much as the next guy, but let’s face it, after a while it stops being a power song. Anyhoo, I plug the iPod in and I get the spinning wheel. For a while, I wasn’t even being impatient or anything.” Mayer said.
Good man, John. No sense in slamming it against the desk. My wife’s iPod, one of the first-generation video jobs, has twice gone on the fritz. She found some instructions on the Apple web site to re-sync the buggy device with our iMac and that worked fine.
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Dell adds services for businesses switching to new PCs
Dell released a set of new services today designed to make it easier for large businesses to replace thousands of computers, including new PCs bought to accommodate Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system.
The new client-migration services include a suite of Dell software tools that automate many of the tasks involved in switching large numbers of users to new PCs, said Kevin Hanes, senior manager in Dell’s services division. The tools include some of the technologies Dell received with its 2006 acquisition of ACS, a U.K.-based technology services firm.
Hanes said the new tools will allow a large company’s technology managers to automatically set up a PC with the applications and data an individual user needs. And because Dell can preload many of a business customer’s most heavily used applications before it ships the machines, he said, the new services program also can reduce the strain that would occur if technology managers had to load that software over the company’s network.
The new services include assessments to help companies refine their plans and procedures for refreshing thousands of computers, whether Dell machines or other brands, Hanes said.
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Google exec: Android will outsell the iPhone
Mobile devices with Google’s Android operating system will outsell Apple’s iPhone.
That’s a bold statement when phones with the new software aren’t even out yet and the iPhone has already sold about 4 million handsets.
The prediction comes from Google’s head guy for mobile platforms, Rich Miner, who was speaking at a conference in Silicon Valley last week.
He bases this prognostication on Google’s open-source strategy for letting software developers have access to the software’s coding so they can come up with innovative applications for Android.
Apple also released software development kits for the iPhone but Miner says there are limitations to it.
I guess we’ll all see if Miner is right sometime in the second half of the year.
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AMD turns to tech veteran for turnaround help
Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is turning to a longtime tech industry veteran to become its top sales and marketing officer as it tries to regain recently lost momentum.
AMD early Thursday morning named Nigel Dessau as chief marketing officer. He’ll be based in Austin and report directly to AMD CEO Hector Ruiz.
Dessau (that’s him in the photo) replaces longtime AMD sales and marketing chief Henri Richard, who left in August amid rising turmoil in the top ranks at the company.
Dessau joins AMD from Sun Microsystems, where he was senior vice president of storage marketing and senior vice president of alliances and licensing. Prior to that, he spend 19 years at IBM and also ran the marketing operations of StorageTek.
His experience may be key for AMD.
“Nigel’s customer knowledge and experience working for IBM and Sun are tremendous assets as AMD charts a new course for the industry with initiatives such as Accelerated Computing,” Dirk Meyer, AMD’s president said in a statement.
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No muss, no fuss: ITunes sold with iPods and iPhones in the initial buy
You’ve got to give Apple credit. It’s using its head, and its iPod..
The computing and content company is talking with the major music companies about the possibility of selling its iPod with unlimited access to its iTunes library.
Apparently there’s some market research that shows consumers would gobble up the iPods and iPhones — that is those of you who don’t already have them — if access to the massive music library was part of the purchase, the Financial Times says.
It’s similar to a plan Nokia announced in December with Universal Music. So far, Apple isn’t giving enough to the music industry to cut the deal so expect to continue with the separate downloads. What a drag.
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Explosive surprise from Apple’s nano
Beware, exploding Nanos?
Oops. The Apple marketing machine isn’t going to like> that. The popular MP3 players are the quintessential mobile music player.
Stylish, cute and very portable, the Nano is in the shoulder bag of most teens. It’s right next to the cellphone.
But there are plenty of other players ready to step in, should the Nano, well, self destruct. A photo on Engadget.com shows an older model of the Nano charred and wasted.
Japanese authorities didn’t take kindly the explosive surprise. They’ve asked, make that ordered, Apple to investigate.
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New Freescale CEO tells employees it’s time to start winning
Rich Beyer took over as chairman and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. today and he sent a message to the company’s 24,000 worldwide employees.
Beyer, who comes from California’s Intersil Corp., takes over from Michel Mayer, who announced his resignation Feb. 8.
Mayer, who headed the company since its spin-off from Motorola Inc. in 2004, will remain as an adviser to the company until May. Freescale employs about 5,000 people in Austin.
Here’s what Beyer told his new employees:
Today is my first official day as your Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. I want to express my appreciation to Michel for his significant contributions over the past four years and for the support he is providing me during this transition at Freescale. I also wish to thank the Board of Directors for their confidence by entrusting me with the responsibilities of leading this fine company.
I joined Freescale because I believe we can grow and I believe we can win. This is truly a great company with a heritage of which we can all be proud. We are known across the globe in virtually every market segment. We are on solid financial footing, enjoy leadership positions in superb, high-growth markets, and have a customer base that wants us to succeed.
Perhaps most importantly, we have a strong management team and 24,000 people who want to work together and achieve even greater success.
My management style is direct and involved. I started in sales and marketing working directly with customers, and it made an indelible impression on the importance of putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. In my 30 years of semiconductor and systems experience, I have found putting the customer first is the best way to achieve sustainable customer advantage.
I want one team working toward one common goal, and it should come as no surprise that profitable revenue growth is our primary objective.
I had the opportunity to join our Technical Sales Summit earlier this month and was truly impressed by the quality of the people, their candor and passion. A key theme of every conversation was the importance of leveraging and cross-selling the entire Freescale portfolio, a theme you will continue to hear in the days and weeks to follow.
In my first 100 days, I plan to be on the road meeting with our top customers and talking with employees around the world. I will conduct formal and informal employee meetings and you should expect to see me in your work area. I really believe in the concept of management by walking around. But, please don’t wait for me to come to you. If you have a question or suggestion, please e-mail me. You have my commitment to personally read and respond to all inputs.
I plan to do an in-depth review of each of our product families within the first 30 days. I will also evaluate our position in each of our markets - networking, wireless, transportation, consumer and industrial. And I will get a thorough assessment of each of our geographic regions, operations, technology development programs and all supporting business functions.
I am already convinced that we are building a global brand that is extremely compelling. There are very few semiconductor companies, if any, that are as well positioned to meet the growing market demands for energy-efficient and constant-connectivity solutions.
I am proud to be part of Freescale, and you should be proud of what you have accomplished to date. Together, we will write the next chapter in the Freescale story.
It starts today. Let’s go win.
Rich
Greenpeace lists green devices
Sony-Ericsson and Sony’s notebook computer came out on top in a study by Greenpeace on green electronic devices.
Zeina Al-Hajj, a Greenpeace member, said the group is concerned about the 20 million to 50 million in electronic waste that the world produces every year. She told PC World we’re building “an Eiffel Tower of waste every 70 hours.”
What we’re talking about is toxic waste such as lead, beryllium, PVC and brominated fire retardants. The group wants manufacturers to switch to more environmentally friendly materials that can be recycled.
Too bad Microsoft and Nintendo were among the companies that didn’t reply or respond in time for the survey. That means many video-game consoles weren’t even factored into the report.
The way we swap out cellphones every few months to get the latest functions or the coolest designs, Greenpeace has a lot to worry about.
Google-DoubleClick merger approved
After a four-month investigation, the European Union has cleared Google’s merger with Internet ad giant DoubleClick, giving a huge boost to Google’s plans to greatly expand its advertising reach online.
The EU said in a statement said that it didn’t find any evidence that the $3.1 billion merger would harm consumers.
Just a few hours after the approval. Google announcedit had completed the deal.
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CompUSA re-opened Deerfield Beach store; Palm Beach Gardens coming soon
CompUSA has reopened its store in Deerfield Beach at 1835 W. Hillsboro Blvd. and is expected to open a store in Palm Beach Gardens sometime this spring.
The company closed many of its stores, including the one on Okeechobee Boulevard, after the holidays in December, when Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, failed to turnaround the store chain that was a fixture for geekdom during the boom years of high-tech.
Almost immediately, Systemax Inc., a direct marketer of computer hardware, spent $30 million for the brand name and said it would re-open 15 CompUSAs in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.
By the way, this company has found itself on the wrong side of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. He acknowledged in January that he had begun an investigation of Systemax’s OnRebate.com site over allegations that it delayed or kept customers’ product rebates.
I’m glad a familiar name is up and running again. On its web site, CompUSA says it will offer a wider range of hardware at lower prices and ship its products faster. Easier said than done. But will it be enough to compete with the Dells of the world?
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New technology makes uploading faster on AT&T 3G network
AT&T has rolled out a technology upgrade for its 3G cell sites in South Florida from Florida’s Keys to the Treasure Coast.
The old Cingular Wireless network has been putting up 3G sites for almost two years but this upgrade really addresses a problem for laptop users with the company’s wireless card.
“People are doing more uploads. It used to be they do mainly download,” said AT&T spokeswoman Kelly Starling.
That’s probably because download speeds are 600 to 1,400 kilobits a second. With this upgrade, upload speeds will range from 500 to 800 kilobits a second, making it easier to transmit to the Internet.
Faster upload capability will find its way into cell phones later this year as more people become comfortable with the mobile functionality of today’s phones.
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Wake up, computer!
Ever been traveling - say to grandma’s house - and realize all those great pictures you wanted to show off are back home on your computer?
Soon you may be able to phone home and get them.
At its annual investor conference going in Santa Clara, Calif. right now, Intel Corp. is showing off a new technology it calls “remote wakeup.” With it, an Intel official showed me, you can use another computer or any other Internet device with a screen - such as an iPhone or other type of smart phone - go to a special Web site and log in to your computer back home to access your photos or other information.
Other companies - GoToMyPC is one of them - offers similar capabilities. But the difference, Intel tells me, is that its technology is the only one that actually can “wake up” a computer in sleep mode. Also, since Intel plans on building the technology into its computer chipsets, it will someday - maybe beginning later this year - be standard on all new computers.
Intel also is building technology into its chipsets to protect those photos, important work files and other information. Forthcoming chipsets from Intel will include software and hardware capabilities that automatically encrypts computer hard drives for security. Look for that innovation to hit the shelves by the end of this year.
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CEA Gadget Guy shows off the latest and trendiest gizmos
It’s always fun to peek into Jim Barry’s bag of electronic goodies.
The Gadget Guy for the Consumer Electronics Association tours the country with the latest gee-whiz devices from high-tech companies, and he didn’t disappoint today.
Of the bunch in his bag, my personal tastes drifted toward the Sandisk’s TakeTV. Very utilitarian. And cool.
It’s an all-in-one device with a USB drive to download movies and videos from your computer. You then plug the USB into a thin movie-ticket shaped device with cables that attach to the TV, allowing you to watch downloaded programming while sitting on the couch rather than the swivel chair in front of the PC. There’s a remote control too.
At $99 or $149, depending on the storage capacity, it’s a great entertainment concept.
Another device that plays to the PC-to-TV technology trend is Vuzix’s iWear VR520, a video gadget that looks like eyeglasses on steriods and is equipped with earbuds attached to the temples.
It allows the user to play movies or video from an MP3 player, such as an iPod, but view them on tiny screens that appear much bigger to the eye. The dual screens simulate viewing on a 60-inch TV from 9 feet away. Price: $320.
Since I mentioned the iPod, let me talk about another product, yet another alternative to Apple’s popular video and music player. Microsoft has taken a run at Apple with its Zune, achieving marginal success.
For its part, Sony has taken one of its longstanding brands into the MP3 battle with its Walkman MP3 Player. The thin steel-gray case and horizontal video screen give it a stylish form factor that you’d expect from Sony. And its 8 gigabytes of storage and $240 price make it competitive. I’ve seen them cheaper online.
A few questions: Does it really bring anything new the MP3? Will anybody give it a try? Or will they just walk right back into the Apple Store and replace their old iPod with one of the new ones released late last year?
Some of the new devices are getting mileage out of the trend toward digital mobility. Cobra offers a handheld GPS unit called the NAV ONE 5000 but its schtick is its large touchscreen for people who struggle with getting directions on their tiny cell-phone screens.
It has enough storage for programming up to 600 brands, such as McDonalds or Starbucks. It already has “points of interest” programmed in, and gives voice directions.
The Cobra GPS device is pricey at $500 but another GPS gizmo, a keychain by Deluo, costs less than $100. It captures GPS signals and transmits to your cell phone or PDA through Bluetooth technology, so you don’t have to pay the cell-carrier’s monthly fee for a GPS service.
The Gadget Guy also pulled a DTV converter box from his bag. These boxes are the devices required to watch television after Feb. 17 next year if you watch programming from the air waves, and not cable- or satellite-TV. That is, you’re using a rooftop antenna or rabbit ears to capture the signals.
This one from Zenith (the DTT900) cost $60. It’s about the size of box of thin cigars. It has input/output plugs in the back to attach to the TV and the antenna. There are about 40 such models on the market.
But the important message is that THE BOXES ARE IN STORES RIGHT NOW. And the government will give you two free coupons worth $40 each to defray the cost.
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Charter flights on the cheap, or at least the cheaper
The Web site, Virgin Charter, has launched for those wealthy folk looking for a last-minute deal on a charter flight.
These are really expensive. I pulled up an offer for last-minute travel from Santiago, Chile, to West Palm Beach, leaving Wednesday or Thursday for the bargain-basement price of $4,717.11. Pocket change, right? I’m thinking of an impromptu shopping trip on Worth Avenue.
The Web site allows the buyer to bid on the fare, using a web button titled “make an offer,” so maybe the fare can whittled down to $4,000, so someone can avoid dipping into their trust fund.
Virgin Charter is aimed at filling empty seats on charter flights, and Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic, thought it was such a great idea, he bought it and financed improvements to the site, the TechCrunch.com blog says.
Branson wanted to call it Empty Legs. I like that name better but you can’t get much bounce back to the original “Virgin” brand with it.
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3G iPhone expected out in June
An analyst with UBS Global Equity Research says Apple’s 3G iPhone should be out by June, according to Intomobile.com.
Apple has picked German chipmaker, Infineon, for the hardware inside the phone. This should be good news for all those suffering through web searches on the Edge Network, which can’t support fast data-transmission speeds, and that would include most every iPhone owner.
AT&T Mobility President and CEO Ralph de la Vega said last month that 95 percent of iPhone owners surf the web, including 30 percent who had never done so before owning an iPhone.
It’s hard to believe that anybody who sinks hundreds of dollars into the hottest cell phone on the market wouldn’t have done some web-surfing in his lifetime.
Now this number from de la Vega I do believe: 51 percent of iPhone owners have watched videos on YouTube.
He also said nine out of 10 rated Apple’s device better than their previous handset. That may be a function of the phone’s features. But really, how many people are going spend $400 for a phone, and say they don’t like it?
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