Columns

Could “Unlimited” Save T-Mobile USA?

Chris Davies, Jan 30th 2012 Discuss [0]

T-Mobile USA has a problem: uninterested subscribers, patchy “4G” coverage and, with the collapse of the AT&T acquisition deal, sole responsibility for digging itself out of the whole mess. The carrier – or more accurately owners Deutsche Telekom – had envisaged AT&T taking over responsibility for US operations, leaving the German parent company to handle the European market it’s far more familiar with. Those schemes have been left in disarray, but could T-Mobile’s UK cousin have shown it the way to shock-style market salvation?

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Columns

I’m switching to iPhone 4S for a week

Chris Burns, Jan 29th 2012 Discuss [0]

This week I will be embarking on a journey which includes me giving up the Android smartphones I’ve been using essentially exclusively over the past several years and picking up an iPhone 4S. Apple’s own smartphone hero is the most well-known smartphone hardware/software combination on Earth, and since it is my job to bring you, the readers, a well-rounded set of coverage on the gadget and technology world, the opportunity to work with the newest version, iPhone 4S, was one I could not pass up. This whole week will be filled with accounts of what it means to not only switch to iOS, but what it means to use the one device with the biggest global following on the planet.

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Columns

Why I’d Take An Xbox 360 Over An Apple TV Any Day

Don Reisinger, Jan 28th 2012 Discuss [0]

I’m often asked by friends if they should buy an Apple TV. They usually head to the Apple Store to buy a new iPad or iPhone, and while there, they come across Apple’s little set-top box. For just $99, it seems like a bargain. And so, they ask me if they should plunk down the cash to buy one.

The first question I ask when I field the question is, “do you own an Xbox 360?”

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Columns

What the Apple TV Needs to No Longer Be A Hobby

Don Reisinger, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

I’m a little confused.

Remember back when Apple first introduced the Apple TV, and the company said that it was designed to be a hobby device? Well, in 2010, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, after unveiling a new version of the device, said it was no longer a hobby. Now, though, it appears it is again, since Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook said earlier this week that the device is still — wait for it — a hobby.

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Columns

Nokia Bought Time, But That Clock Is Ticking

Chris Davies, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

$1.25 billion in losses would normally be a pretty dire way to end a quarter, but Nokia managed to muster just enough sugar for lemonade with more than a million sales of its first two Windows Phone handsets. After months of “we’ll launch by the end of the year” promises, Elop & Co. came through with not one but two smartphones based on Microsoft’s OS, turning that duo into a trio at CES 2012 earlier this month. As foundations go it’s a solid start, but make no mistake: it only gets tougher from here.

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Columns

Lytro iPhone impossible at the moment, stop asking

Chris Burns, Jan 25th 2012 Discuss [0]

This week there’s been quite a bit of talk across the airwaves on how and when light field technology (via Lytro) would be integrated into smartphones – I’m here to tell you why its absolutely absurd to think that it’ll be here any time soon. When Steve Jobs met with Lytro CEO Ren Ng, they spoke about what Ng would like Lytro to do with Apple. Though it’s been suggested by many, including me, that this meant light field technology could possible in mobile devices such as the iPhone and the iPad, that’s simply not true with the current set of rules in both physics and technology.

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Columns

Droid RAZR MAXX is a slap in consumer faces

Chris Burns, Jan 25th 2012 Discuss [0]

When the original Droid RAZR was released, we were there at the launch event in New York City to see how serious both Motorola and Verizon were about bringing a new era to their combined forces for Droid – now that the next version is out not even a half a year later, I’ve got to question their logic. What sense did it make to release a device which was amongst the thinnest smartphones in the world if the battery inside it wasn’t going to be equitable in excellence? Of course the answer is that there’d be a marketing scheme several months after the release in which the thinness was no longer the coolest factor, the RAZR MAXX having a battery that should very well blow consumers away.

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Columns

Apple TV is an Embarrassment

Chris Davies, Jan 25th 2012 Discuss [0]

“Doing quite well” isn’t a phrase you associate with Apple, and yet that’s just how CEO Tim Cook described the Apple TV this week. The little-loved stepchild of the company’s hardware range, at $99 – with no need for a carrier agreement or subsidy – it had the smart TV price point right while Google TV was floundering at more than twice that amount. Yet Apple has consistently failed to capitalize on its foot-in-the-door of the living room, and it’s looking increasingly like it may miss the opportunity again.

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Columns

Much Ado About Booth Babes

Philip Berne, Jan 24th 2012 Discuss [0]

If you look up the term “objectification of women” in your college dictionary, you’ll probably see a definition illustrated by a photograph of a tall, slender, blond woman wearing skimpy shorts and a tight t-shirt, standing next to a table stacked with plastic cell phone carrying cases. Recently, there’s been a lot of hubbub over these hired guns who stand at booths set up at the trade shows that are dominated by men. The video game shows, the technology shows, the car shows.

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Columns

Apple Q1 2012 sales point to monster future for iPhone, death of iPod

Chris Burns, Jan 24th 2012 Discuss [0]

There’s a lot to be said about the Q1 2012 sales report from Apple today, but one point stands out like a beacon: with 37,044,000 units and 24,417,000,000 (that’s $24 billion) in revenue from iPhone and related products and services. This is compared to the units and revenue from the same category during Q4 of 2011 which ads up to 16,235,000 units and 10,468,000,000 in revenue – this means that Apple has more than DOUBLED their units and revenue in one quarter. Of course this includes the holiday season once Apple’s Q1 started, so it’s not that big a deal, right?

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Columns

RIM’s new CEO is a Placeholder not a Prophet

Chris Davies, Jan 23rd 2012 Discuss [12]

After listening to RIM’s new CEO Thursten Heins talk this morning, you could almost hear investors kicking themselves for not being specific enough in their demands for refreshed leadership at the BlackBerry company. “We shouldn’t have just asked for a new CEO” shareholders are no doubt muttering, “but made clear we wanted one with new ideas too.” Heins, for all his hyperbole about the BlackBerry advantage being its “integrated solution” of hardware, software and services, showed his true colors when he argued that “I don’t think there is a drastic change needed.” Those colors, it seems, are exactly the same shades as Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie preferred during their tenure at the top. So, is this new CEO simply a temporary placeholder or a sign of fresh misery to come?

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Columns

HBO Go Could Be the Next Netflix

Don Reisinger, Jan 21st 2012 Discuss [11]

As a Time Warner Cable customer, I was one of the last cable subscribers out there to get access to HBO Go. For months now, many of you have probably been using the streaming service, and to see a column about it now might surprise you. But don’t hold it against me — I was a victim of the oddly contentious relationship between Time Warner Cable and its former corporate overlord, Time Warner.