Where’s the iPhone 5 and What’s Taking So Long??

This is a question I am getting asked a lot amongst my friends.  As the resident tech expert and the only one really plugged into the rumor mill with a blog, I guess I’m their most reliable source.  Still, the question plagues me daily and I must admit my frustration at the lack of a new Apple handset is reaching its fever pitch as well.  Apple usually unleashes a new mobile phone in June or July.  Yet here we are in mid-September already with nigh a sign of the iPhone 5’s release.  Current rumors place the iOS 5 Gold Master release at September 23rd, meaning the iPhone 5’s introduction will have to come some point after that.  I’m hopeful for an October 5th release (or at least announcement of the device) but no one has hard confirmation.  Ok, so we get that Apple is trying to move the iPhone into the fall lineup of device releases, probably to boost their holiday season numbers and allow iPad releases to take over the spring.  But still, this is taking forever!  Why?

I’ve got a few theories that are just crazy enough to be true.

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State of the Telecoms: Devices

Last year, in a vain attempt to create some sort of quarterly feature, I published the “State of the Telecoms” accessing each of the four major carriers and their pros and cons.  I think it was a pretty dry post.  So instead, I’ve decided this year to focus in on what you guys really want. Specifically, the phones that really stand out from each carrier.  In the end, that’s what draw people to carriers now.  So here’s how this breaks down, I will list no less than 3, but no more than 6 phones from each carrier.  They cannot all have the same operating system and can’t all be essentially the same phone.  There has to be some kind of diversity for a phone to make the “recommended list”.  So for example, the Samsung Continuum won’t make the list for Verizon because it’s basically a Galaxy S, which Verizon already has a version of.  The point of this break down is to highlight the best phones from each carrier and show the diversity in their line up.  And it’s only going to be smart phones.

Briefly: Windows Phone 7 Improvements

The mobile scene has been on fire in the past week or so, and all of this has culminated at the Mobile World Congress going on now in Barcelona.  Today, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer presented the latest updates to the Windows Phone 7 operating system, coming in March.  Much like Apple finally implemented, WP7 now has 3rd party multitasking – via a card system very much like webOS – and copy/paste.  Why these features weren’t there in the first place is beyond me, but at least it didn’t take three (or four) iterations to include these features…. Apple.  Along for the ride as well is a new browser using the much faster and more modern IE9 underpinnings (allowing for hardware acceleration), Twitter integration and finally support for CDMA (Verizon and Sprint customers).

It’s good to see Microsoft being pretty quick with updates.  I said from the beginning that the only way Microsoft could be successful was by issuing updates often, showing that they are constantly improving the platform.  These updates should placate those who felt WP7 was lacking a bit.

Renders of First WP7 Nokia Phones

So Nokia’s going to Windows Phone 7.  Can they still keep their personal flair in the transition?  Looks like it.  Engadget got a hold of some concept photos for what Nokia’s first WP7 devices will look like.  Seems like a nice cross between the N8 and C7 with some bigger screens.  I like these a lot.  All props go to Engadget for these photos.

Ode to the Flip Phone

 

Today I saw a rare gem of a begotten era: a Motorola RAZR.  It was only out of the corner of my eye that I saw the device, held up to the ear of some collegiate fellow as our paths crossed.  At first, I didn’t think anything of it.  But something about the sight seemed to keep my attention far longer than it should have.  Now I think I realize why that image of the RAZR stays in my mind.  It is, in many ways, an extinct species.  Back in the glorious days of 2006, the RAZR was pretty synonymous with my generation.  It was basically the phone to get – symbolizing style, wealth, and cutting edge features.  You could text pictures!  You could get on WAP internet!  Motorola made a killing with the RAZR in its four year tenure from 2004 to 2008, but like all good things, the RAZR came to an end.

Ever since the launch of the iPhone, smartphones have been for consumers.  No longer are these powerful devices locked into the corporate world, they are now meant to enrich the life of regular people.  And with the advent of Android and cheaper Blackberries, smartphones are now accessible even on a budget for most consumers.  These two factors have pushed flip phones (like the RAZR) into the dust.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s just the progression of technology at work.  But it is sort of sad to see these once highly coveted items now be treated like the most pathetic of devices.

Going into an AT&T store with a friend a few weeks ago, I became very aware of the slow demise of the flip phone.  Besides from a few “GoPhones” and one or two essentially free phones on contract, you can’t get a phone in that form factor anymore!  These days, you have really three choices: a decent feature phone with a full QWERTY keyboard for texting, low-end smartphones like BlackBerry’s and cheap Androids, or flagship smartphones like the iPhone or Galaxy S.  The fact is that smartphones are penetrating down into the lowest end sector.  Back in 2005 when I got my first cellphone, it was a remarkably basic Nokia.  I could call, text, get on AT&T’s (then Cingular) MediaNet (a GPRS service to download super basic ringtones and games) and that was about it.  By comparison, today’s basic phones would have been considered very high-end for those times.  Full keyboards, email, great cameras, decent web browsing, and 3G speed are all basically givens for today’s consumer.  Again, kind of a “duh” moment since it has been 5 years since my first cellphone, but it’s still interesting to see how much things have changed.

Smartphones are pushing further and further into our lives.  In the next few years, it will be hard to find a feature phone at all that is not using an advanced mobile OS or equipped with an app store.  Feature phones, like flip phones before them, will become relics of the past.  Do your self a favor: hold on to the old phones, remember where we’ve come from and how far we’ve progressed.

Why I Hate the KIN

Last month Microsoft unveiled their long rumored “Project Pink.”  Long thought to be a “Zune Phone”, what Microsoft instead announced was the KIN, a new mobile phone platform that seemed sort of… misplaced. The KIN is neither a smartphone, nor a “feature phone” as we now refer to most basic phones, but rather a kind of “in-between” phone.  It does more than your basic phone but a lot less than something like Android or the iPhone.  The two devices, called creatively KIN 1 and KIN 2, were strange-looking and unique to say the least.  But what was it about the KIN that made it different?  Microsoft has billed the KIN as a phone for social networkers.  For people who want to consume media and information in the easiest way possible.  The KIN’s Windows CE software is designed to aggregate information coming in from Facebook, Twitter, Email and text messaging, all on one screen.  Besides from that, the KIN has little other features to distinguish itself.  And I don’t like that.

Probably the biggest indication of who Microsoft is marketing this phone to was from the announcement video.  It showed off obnoxious, ridiculous examples of my generation – people who seemed like caricatures of Jersey Shore, if that was even possible.  To say I am not a fan of these “bros” and – you know I don’t even have an appropriate name for the female variation (leave me a good one in the comments) – is an understatement.  But I hate worse how they use technology.  Don’t get me wrong, the consumption of media is a god-given right.  But I hate how people of my generation use the internet for its lowest common denominator functions.  We now live in a world of text message junkies and Crackberries – people who can’t be separated from always being plugged in.  Not even for news or business, but just to know “what’s up” with their friends, who broke up with who, and what’s the latest fashion.  It seems like the internet has just become a giant version of high school with these people.  I would hope that this adolescent use of the internet and personal devices will disappear with maturity, but seeing as how the older generations have too invaded Facebook and opened Twitter accounts, I kind of doubt that.

That is the kind of consumerist, mindless use of technology that the KIN represents and why I dislike it.  The KIN’s design focuses around the aggregation of social media – the constant feed of information not for knowledge, but to have the inside scoop on celebrities and gossip.  The KIN lacks any form of app store or expanded functionality like Android, iPhone, or Windows Mobile 7.  While these software platforms are measured by their expansibility, their usefulness as a utility and appliance, the KIN has none of these advantages and rather is like an IV of internet crack.

Just so we’re clear that’s Devil’s Advocate and hyperbole.  The KIN in no way represents the downfall of humanity and there is nothing inherently wrong with it.  My true issue is that it is so limited and inherently handicaps the user to only enjoy the social media abilities of mobile devices.  Whereas other devices live on their expandable use, the KIN will remain boring.  There’s nothing to distinguish itself from other devices besides its strange form factor.  And for that reason, it will fail.  Do yourself a favor, don’t even consider buying a KIN.  You would be much wiser to buy a phone with greater abilities than simply helping your media addictions.  If you need a good phone on the cheap, might I recommend a Palm Pixi or Blackberry Pearl or iPhone 3G?  There are better options out there in smartphones.  The KIN is, quite succinctly, stupid.

New iPhone Prototype Has the A4

So, last month Gizmodo got their hands on a lost prototype of the next generation iPhone that some guy found at a bar.  And the world exploded….. in anticipation of finding out news about the new phone.  There was a whole lot of hubbub over the device, and news was coming so fast and fierce that I thought it would be best to leave that to Gizmodo, Engadget and other more professional tech blogs with direct access.  Regardless, I think it’s time to chime in on the possibilities of the device given new information.  So, what to we know about the next iPhone?  Not much.  When Gizmodo first got their hands on the device, it was loaded with a prototype version of iPhone OS 4, but it was quickly remote wiped by Apple.  Besides from that not a lot was known for a while.  The screen may be a higher resolution (as high as 960 x 640, which is 4X the current HVGA screen), the camera looks to be improved, and the battery has a little more capacity.  The only definite goodies that could be gleaned from the prototype was the inclusion of a front camera, a flash on the back camera, the use of Micro-SIM cards, and a noise cancellation mic up top.  This was all in addition to a very sexy new form factor that uses more aluminum and has what looks like a ceramic back to improve radio reception.  I really hope that structural integrity improves since the current iPhone is a little flimsy (I dropped mine on some pavement the other day from about 3 feet, it’s fine but the cosmetic damage is disappointing).

However, the picture has become more clear today as another iPhone prototype has been found by some people in Vietnam and was swiftly sent over to iFixit.  iFixit is an internet site that is meant to show people how to fix many electronics on their own.  They also take the liberty of stripping down new tech to see how they tick.  It was iFixit who thoroughly scanned through the iPad and eventually sent the A4 chip for XRay to see just what was inside it.  Well they’ve done the same with the iPhone prototype and low and behold, it’s rocking the exact same A4 as the iPad.  To revisit, the A4 is Apple’s custom SoC that combines memory, I/O, and the core ARM Cortex-A8 processor, which runs at 1Ghz due to specialized logic from Intrinsity – a design firm that specializes in modifying existing ARM processors and was recently bought by Apple.  The A4 also has 256MB of RAM running on a 64-bit data bus sandwiched on top of the processor core in a package-on-package design to reduce its footprint.  Overall, it’s a nice chip that has powered the heart of the iPad for some impressive speed and performance while offering excellent power management.  It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the A4 is coming to an iPhone since it’s virtually the same as the current chipset in the iPhone 3GS.  The only difference is its reduced footprint, better power management, faster clockspeed, and better memory bus.  Besides from that, the iPhone and iPad are identical in their processors, even the graphics chip are the same.

So while the inclusion of the A4 in the next iPhone (we’ll call it the iPhone HD) is a nice performance boost over the 3GS, I am a little worried about the iPad.  Mostly because…. well…. what’s the difference now between the iPad and the iPhone?  They have the same hardware (the iPhone HD may even get twice the RAM according to new rumors), very similar screen resolutions (960×640 vs. 1024×768 for iPhone and iPad, respectively), and will run the same software.  And with the iPhone’s inclusion of cameras, standard 3G radio and GPS it makes the iPad seem sort of…. redundant.  In my hands on review of the iPad I stressed that we should not think of it as a giant iPod Touch but rather the other way around, but with the iPhone and eventually the iPod Touch getting these new specs, it becomes harder to make that argument.  The increasing similarity and feature parity between Apple’s $200 (subsidized price) phone and their $500 (base price with no 3G) multimedia tablet makes the choice between them much harder, or maybe far easier.  To be honest, the iPhone HD seems like the obvious choice, especially as iPhone OS 4 is bringing several of the enhancements we’ve already seen on the iPad to the iPhone.  Personally, I believe that this new problem only further proves that Apple undershot on their hardware for the iPad.  They were designing the A4 for a tablet while it only compares to the hardware in state-of-the-art mobile phones.  The A4 will work splendidly in the iPhone, but Apple must re-double their efforts for the next iPad and significantly update the hardware to something more substantial.  I’ve thrown the Cortex-A9 name around before in previous articles, so I’ll only say that Apple should integrate this new chip, with its added dual-processor support, out-of-order execution, and faster clockspeed, into the next iPad and create some significant space between these two devices.  Otherwise, I will never see a point in getting the iPad, and neither will anyone else with even half as much technical education as myself.

No Matter Who Wins, We Win

Two weeks ago Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone Series 7, the next generation of their mobile phone software formerly known as Windows Mobile.  The unveiling was a revelation to the masses: Microsoft actually gets it now.  Windows Mobile had been a slow, outdated and frustrating operating system.  Once the gold standard of smartphone OSes, it had completely fallen to the wayside against others like the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, WebOS and even Symbian.  Instead of being that gold standard, Windows Mobile is now a budget OS used on the most basic and generic of smartphones.  Most companies use their own skin UIs in order to hide the dated style of the OS.  HTC is one such company that has a large amount of WinMo devices, but has masked the OS’s poor design with their own UI and plug-ins.

This all changed with Windows Phone 7.  The UI is clean, minimalist, completely focused on touch mechanics and made for a far more strict set of modern hardware.  Microsoft pulled a drastic 180 on our expectations for the new OS.  It shows that Microsoft has really taken to heart the efforts made by Apple and Google to make more streamlined interfaces.  Arguably, Microsoft has done an even more adept job than Apple or Google at making such a visually appealing design and integrating function.  Much of this has been done by taking lessons Microsoft learned from the Zune HD, which though based on Windows Mobile 6.5, uses a very unique and wonderful interface unlike generic WinMo phones.  You can see the differences between the new OS and the old for yourself:

My Phone Dilemma

It’s no secret that I am a fan of the iPhone.  Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that it is a very well-built and designed phone that has dramatically changed how we perceive phones.  Ever since the first model was announced in 2007 I’ve desperately wanted a taste of real power.  Have the iPhone constantly updated every year only compounds the issue as every year it gets significantly better in terms of hardware and software.  I could have had one by now, but unfortunately in 2008 I used my upgrade on a low-end phone because my previous one had broken.  Of course at the time, the iPhone was not subsidized and did not require a contract to buy at a lower price.  After the summer of 2008 when I was back at AT&T to get the iPhone 3G, this changed as the iPhone became subsidized and required a contract upgrade to be eligible for the lower price.  To make a long story short, it was not a happy day when I discovered I would have to wait until February 2010 to get any new phone at a decent price, let alone the iPhone.

However, February 2010 is close at hand!  Vindication will soon be mine!  Well….. maybe.  Of course the logical choice would be to buy the iPhone 3GS come February, but I might regret that.  See, Apple has a trend of updating the iPhone once every year, usually around June.  And while June is 5 months off, buying any phone for a two-year commitment at the tail end of its life can cause buyer’s remorse.  Now, the 2010 update for the iPhone is a point of mystery.  It could be a simple as releasing a CDMA version for Verizon and otherwise being the same as the current 3GS; it could be a modest storage update and improved camera; it could be a larger screen or higher resolution; or it could even be completely new hardware.  No one is sure.  Now, if it’s something simple like a camera update or more storage, I can live with that.  If it’s a better screen, well I might be a little annoyed.  And if it’s completely new hardware, well… I’ll be rather pissed.  Now I don’t think that Apple will update the hardware, they usually do that every two years and the 3GS as of now is by no means an underpowered phone – it’s about middle of the pack now for high-end smart phones.  But as the market is getting more competitive, Apple may feel the need to accelerate their road maps.

State of the Telecoms: January 2010

State of the Telecoms is a quarterly or need-based series of articles evaluating the 4 major Cellular phone companies based on their current features, device diversity, and plans.  As the Telecoms change rapidly with new cellular technology and exciting new phones, it’s rather prudent to take stock in each company’s weaknesses and flaws.

Smartphones seem like a relatively ubiquitous term these days, yet in reality they’ve only existed for going on 6 years.  It seems crazy in retrospect that it was only 2004 when Palm changed the game with the Treo and Microsoft gave us a glimpse of real computing with Windows Mobile.  With the advent of such powerful phones came the death toll for PocketPCs and Palm Pilots.  Yet, 6 years later the game has changed yet again.  The Treo died and left Palm on life support until their resurgence with WebOS and the Pre/Pixi; Microsoft has dutifully matured Windows Mobile into version 6.5 with 7 on the way; Apple completely changed the game with their iPhone which has rocketed to stardom as “the phone” to beat; Nokia has used powerful and well grounded OS like the Symbian-based S60 and Linux-based Maemo 5; and Google threw a huge wrench in everyone else’s plans by releasing Android and starting the Open Handset Alliance for open-source mobile phones.  As we enter 2010, things are going to get a lot more exciting with more powerful hardware and stronger networks.  But where to begin?.

AT&T had a sort of rough 2009 and Verizon struck at the heart of it.  AT&T’s 3G coverage is lackluster.  Though it does sport the best technology by using HSPA at a theoretical maximum of 7.2Mbps, this is only theoretical.  Most of AT&T’s network is only running at 3.6Mbps and that is still only theoretical, most real world performance is far slower.  And this is only in the places where one gets 3G coverage.  While most people in major cities are mostly okay, rural customers often have to resort to a much slower EDGE connection.  EDGE is barely usable, sort of like a faster dial-up, and unfortunately AT&T relied on that as their “Mobile Broadband” for far too long.  You’ve probably seen those “There’s a Map for That” ads from Verizon and like I said, they strike at this point.  AT&T is trying to improve their network, and at CES they did announce that they have built-in 7.2Mbps support into all of their nodes, but it will be a long time before the entire network is up to spec.  In the end, if you live in a city AT&T is probably okay in terms of coverage, but going out to the country will limit you to EDGE if not voice calls only.