The summer is quickly approaching and Apple fans are asking when the new iPhone 5 will be out and what new features it will support.
Since 2007, when the first iPhone hit stores, fans of the device have come to expect a new version every year in June or July. But some reports are suggesting that the device may be delayed until the fall. In this week's Ask Maggie, I look at some of the recent rumors surrounding the iPhone 5 to help readers plan and plot their purchasing strategies for the latest iPhone.
I also offer my perspective on how concerned smartphone users should be on the recent news that Apple iPhones and iPads have been tracking users' locations. And finally, I answer another reader's question about when Verizon will offer tiered pricing for its mobile data service.
Ask Maggie is a weekly advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. If you've got a question, please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header.
Contrary to what you might have been expecting, the HP Veer won't be showing up in stores quite as soon as was promised.
Lifted from O2 Germany's Twitter feed
As the history books show, O2 Germany's Twitter feed, 'o2inside', has been a steady source of all things Veer and one of their latest posts eludes to a June release, rather than May as was previously thought. This doesn't sit with the tiny handset's big launch party in the US which is still scheduled to take place on the 2nd of May and so we can only assume this rescheduling is primarily going to affect its European release.
If you simply can't wait for the diminutive WebOS device, O2 have kindly setup a site (in German) which will notify you at the very first sign of availability. The site also lets you reserve your handset up to a chosen number of days if you don't have time to pick yours up at launch. Any takers? Let us know.
A new member of the Touch and Type family showed up in several spy shots – the dual-SIM Nokia C2-06. It’s a fairly low-end slider, with a resistive touchscreen and a slide-out phone keypad, 2 SIM cards (2G only).
The Nokia C2-06 looks very similar to another Touch and Type slider that leaked in March, though there are some differences (the area below the display mainly). The phone runs the touch-enabled version of Series 40 and has a resistive display (likely, QVGA again).
It is a dual-SIM phone but right now it is not clear if it’s a dual standby or not. The second SIM is easily accessible though, through a panel on the left. The Nokia C2-06 is a 2G-only phone and lacks Wi-Fi connectivity (it’s a low-end model after all), unlike its two official Touch and Type brethren.
The few other specs of the Nokia C2-06 Touch and Type are 2MP camera, 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB port and an a BL-5C battery. There’s an Ovi Maps shortcut visible but most likely no dedicated GPS receiver.
That’s about all there is on the C2-06 Touch and Type for now. Nokia still has strong positions in the low-end market and a device like that can help out quite a bit, especially in developing markets.
Back in 2010 at Nokia World in London, the Nokia Research Centre demonstrated a neat concept of navigating indoors. Now, there's a new version of the system and Nokia has put up a video promoting it.
The system relies on a positioning beacon, which acts as a "satellite", but just indoors. It is placed on the ceiling and can track how far you are from your desired destination in real-time and is accurate up to 30cm.
A special tracking device, which can be attached to various objects and clothes is available, too. With its help, Nokia's Indoor Positioning can track valuables or even people for that matter. Useful if you have a bad habit of misplacing your belongings.
And here's the promo clip in question.
The novelty looks pretty damn promising, but unfortunately, there's no official word from Nokia when we can see the Indoor Positioning functioning in the wild and available to users.
It was just yesterday when I said that Motorola XOOM isn’t a real iPad competitor in response to Consumer Report’s tagging of Motorola’s first Honeycomb as the first real ipad rival. And now I have an analyst’s backing to support my claim.
James Faucette, an analyst at Pacific Crest confirms what we suspected and saw – Motorola XOOM isn’t doing well in the sales department and isn’t returning revenue Motorola would have estimated it to return.
The trouble doesn’t end here for Motorola as the analyst reports of Motorola Atrix 4G having a hard time getting off the retail store shelves.
In case you forgot, both of these devices have a powerful hardware resume as they have a dual core Tegra 2 processor from Nvidia, are 4G enabled and have the usual bells and whistles that one expects from a tablet and a smartphone in case of Atrix 4G.
While the physical specs are impressive both these Motorola manufactured gadgets lack one key attribute – uniqueness. And that’s exactly the advice Faucette gave to Motorola – give something unique or shareholders
may be looking at another meaningful step down.
It turns out that the new Sense UI 3.0, showcased on the HTC Sensation a couple of days back won't be supported by older HTC devices, due to hardware limitations.
This would really create a serious software gap between the older and newer generation of HTC Androids and the recently released Desire S and Incredible S are on the bad side this time.
I guess the official position of HTC on the natter won't stop the enthusiasts from XDA Developers to port the new features. However latest phones like the Inredible S won't be able to benefit from those as their bootloaders have been factory locked hence locking out any attempts at flashing custom ROMs.
What's good to know is that at least the HTC Flyer, their upcoming tablet which has a single-core CPU running at 1.5Ghz, is getting the new Sense UI.
Google and Apple fan boys are in for a surprise. Amazon has done what we were expecting the Android and iOS creators to do first, rolled out a cloud based music streaming service which they are calling Cloud Music Player. The streaming service works on your Android phones, tablets and of course the web.
Three services namely Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web and Amazon Cloud Player for Android combine together to deliver streaming music to your ears whether it be your mobile phone or your PC. Bill Carr, vice president of Movies and Music at Amazon explains the motive behind these cloud based services:
Our customers have told us they don’t want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices. Now, whether at work, home, or on the go, customers can buy music from Amazon MP3, store it in the cloud and play it anywhere.
To use this service all you need to do is upload your music collection to Amazon Cloud Drive, and then listen to music using either the web based Cloud Player or by downloading the new version of the Amazon MP3 App which includes the music player on your Android phone
Once again, here we are hoping that Apple finally releases the white iPhone 4. The white iPhone 4 has been delayed many times, over and over again and it looks like our previous confirmation of white iPhone 4 hitting stores in April may actually turn out to be true. This time, it’s Bloomberg reporting that Apple may finally start shipping the white iPhone 4 in the next few weeks, after a delay of nearly 10 months.
Apple Inc. will begin selling a white model of the iPhone 4 in the next few weeks after a 10- month delay, according to three people familiar with the plans.
The new version will be available from AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless by the end of April, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The release was stalled as Apple resolved manufacturing challenges, including paint that peeled under heat, one person said.
If the white iPhone 4 is really coming out in the next couple of weeks, at least Apple fans would have something to obsess over for a month or so. Maybe, once the white iPhone 4 hits stores, people would actually be less worried about the iPhone 5 release, which we all know is a long way from now.
You may need to backup your data if you are planning on changing your phone, be able to get back everything in case of a theft/loss or to just get the phone the way it was before (without losing Contacts/SMS).
I did it for the last reason & surprisingly the battery life doubled, exactly what I needed (probably because of lots of background services not running anymore).
Better backup before the world gets upside down on you.
(Note: This guide is for both non-rooted & rooted phones but users having root access should try Titanium Backup)
If you have a Gmail account associated with your phone (& definitely it is) than it’s a non-issue because all your contacts are automatically backed up with Gmail & in the same way restored automatically on a new/refreshed phone.
But if you still somehow want an offline backup or all you contacts in one file, go to Contacts, Press the Menu soft key, Select Import/Export, Select Export to SD Card, Select OK & all your contacts will be saved to the SD Card.
For system settings make sure in Privacy Settings ‘Backup my Data’ is checked (in previous versions, before Android 2.2, check ‘Backup my Settings’).
This will, like contacts, backup your settings online & restore them when needed. Some known settings that will get restored:
WiFi Settings (including saved networks)
Wallpaper
Accessibility Settings
User Dictionary
Privacy Settings
Certain Apps are Re-Installed
But don’t just expect you stuff to instantly re-appear after a restore. Give your phone sometime. The User Dictionary restore may only work in Android 2.2+.
Backing Up SMS
SMS Backup & Restore does what its name says and does just that. It exports all you messages to an XML file on your SD Card. You can get it Installed from the Market.
SMS Backup + is another tool that will backup all your SMS/MMS & Call Logs to your Gmail account. It actually sends them as email to your inbox & labels them appropriately. Am not exactly sure about it’s restore process though it claims it can restore them.
SMS Backup & Restore has a Preview feature to preview messages in the backup file before restoring it & also allows you to find duplicate messages, plus a delete all messages in memory option too.
Call Logs
Install “Call Logs Backup & Restore” from Android Market. The options are simple, just click Backup & it will save your logs into an XML file. The saved file has no ‘styling’ information so if you open it in IE, FireFox, Opera, and Chrome etc. it won’t look neat but is readable. The time, date & phone number can be read from it easily. Android keeps up to 500 logs, so that’s the max it an backup.
The same preview and delete options are here too.
Applications
Start Astro File Manager, press the Menu key & select Tools. Select Application Manager/Backup. Here you have an option to select individual Apps or all of them. Choose the ones that you like & click Backup, Oh you can’t click it… no worries just tap it ;)
[OPTIONAL] AVG Anti-Virus Free
AVG Anti-Virus Free is a ‘One App’ solution to all backup operations. The catch? You cannot backup individual category like say just the messages or just the bookmarks & the restore will delete all the previous info & replace it with the ones in the backup file. If it’s a new system that’s completely OK. Still it’s a powerful tool and largely hassle free. The ‘App Backup’ will backup your Applications, the same way as Astro. Why it is in the end and not recommended as the only solution? Because it is a Beta feature & may hang during the restore process.
Important Step:
Your call log, SMS, Contacts & Applications are now on your SD Card. Connect your phone to a PC & transfer the files/folders described below or email the smaller files to yourself (I use Gmail) as a fast easy way for online storage/retrieval.
Files: 00001.vcf (or 00002.vcf it that one already exists)
Folders: CallLogBackupRestore, SMSBackupRestore, backups (contains your apps), droidbackupdir (if you used AVG Anti-Virus Free).
Refresh Your Phone
Go to Settings > Privacy > Factory Data Reset.
You phone will restart and it will be like new :)
Copy the above mentioned files back to the SD Card, install the respective apps and hit restore on each one of them, that’s all. Besides these there are tons of different apps on the Android Market, you are free to explore them :) Do check Lookout Mobile Security, unlike the other apps it backs them up online.
Mobilink and Ufone signed an accord to enter into an agreement for tower sharing.
The agreement was signed between Rashid Khan, President and CEO of Mobilink, and Abdul Aziz, President and CEO of Ufone at the Mobilink House.
This collaborative effort is in line with the initiatives taken by the Pakistan Telecom Authority and the Federal Government to encourage cellular providers to drive greater efficiencies while reducing the carbon foot print.
Sharing his views, Rashid Khan said,
“This alliance is mutually beneficial and will also facilitate us to better align ourselves with our strategic initiatives and become greener. This will further enhance Mobilink’s coverage footprint, already the widest, hence, bringing more value to the customer which is our top priority.”
Commenting on the accord, Abdul Aziz, CEO Ufone, said,
“Ufone has had a keen interest in exploring newer avenues for our “Go Green” initiative and this tower sharing alliance is another step forward to further enhance our initiative. With this alliance Ufone has moved ahead to ensure customers have seamless connectivity no matter where they are in the country. This follows similar alliances with other operators hence allows us to create a positive network layout most beneficial to the customer”
Through sharing of their network infrastructures the two cellular providers will be able to enhance the customer experience by offering a wider coverage footprint, driving synergies and reducing their respective carbon foot prints.
In a rather pleasant move, Microsoft has released the iPad version of its Bing app for iOS. Bing for iPad brings all of the features from the iPhone version.
Bing is a decision engine that’s been designed to work beautifully with your iPad. Bingfor iPad brings you closer to what you’re looking for by delivering a visually rich, touch-enabled way to search and browse news, movies, Bing homepage images, localbusinesses, popular searches and much more.
Features of Bing for iPad:
Swipe through our touch enabled Movie Listing, news articles, trending topics, localbusinesses and other rich, immersive search results.
Stay current with the latest news, traffic, Weather, stock quotes, movies and popular searches from the main screen.
Bing Local and Map integration to help you find the places you are looking for from directions with real-time tracking to immersive road, traffic, aerial and “bird’s eye” views.
Follow the latest news and trending topics with beautifully iPad optimized results with rich images and magazine inspired layouts.
Tell Bing what you are searching for with voice activated search.
wonderful touch friendly, grid view of image searches, with source site details and full page Preview.
Easily navigate between Bing results and websites as Bing frames the site to make it easy to return the search or to launch a new one.
Bing for iPad is available as a Free download from the App Stores and requires iOS 4.2 or higher running on your iPad.
The iPhone Dev-Team has just released Redsn0w 0.9.6RC9 to jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 untethered on Windows and Mac. Moments earlier, Pwnagetool 4.3 for iOS 4.3.1 untethered jailbreak was also released.
Redsn0w 0.9.6RC9 will jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 untethered on your iPhone 3GS/iPhone 4, iPod touch 3G/4G, iPad 1 and second-generation Apple TV on iOS 4.2.1. The iPad 2 is not vulnerable to this exploit.
For unlockers:
WARNING WARNING — ultrasn0w users don’t update yet! We need to first release an update to ultrasn0w that fixes some incompatibilities when FW 4.3.1 is used on the older basebands supported by ultrasn0w. And remember once we do fix ultrasn0w for 4.3.1 (we’ll announce it here and on twitter), you must only get there via a custom IPSW from PwnageTool, Sn0wbreeze or xpwn! Don’t ever try to restore or update to a stock IPSW, or you’ll lose the unlock!
Apple is one company that surely defines creativity. Apple has just released a new iPad 2 commercial that actually defines what tablets really are: a post-PC device. We’ve seen other tablet manufacturers release ads for their own devices, but those commercials basically tout the hardware specs, which nevertheless are important, but they do need to realize that many consumers are just looking forward to experience itself, and that’s what Apple concentrates on.
The new iPad 2 commercial:
Its a fact that leaders in any respective arena are going to be those that entice their prospective consumers through the user experience their particular device offers. Many manufacturers across the board can produce their own tablets with the same tech specs, but they can never replicate the experience, and that’s where the differentiation between the devices begins.
Agree? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
There was a reason why people loved the fifth-generation iPod nano. It was because they got video recording and playback capability, a click wheel and an awesome music player all packed into one neat and compact device. Apple ditched the click wheel and the camera and went for a smaller form factor with a multi-touch display and iOS inspired software for the sixth-generation iPod nano, which basically sucks. Now, word is that the seventh-generation ipad nanowill be getting a camera but will be keeping its current size and form factor.
The legitimacy of this site is undoubted, as previously it brought legitimate Verizon iPhone 4schematics from Foxconn, shots of the multitouch display on the current iPod nano as well as extremely accurate iPad 2 details.
However, there is one thing that comes to mind. For arguments sake, even if we believe that Apple will put a camera on the seventh generation iPod nano, where will the belt clip go? Will it be removed altogether or are we yet to see another breakthrough in terms of design from Apple? Well, we can always count on the Cupertinoes to do that.
Also, what intrigues is that how exactly will it feel to take photos and record video on such a small device? I’m sure many would have used camera watches, but this is an entirely different thing. Any thoughts on how the seventh-generation iPod nano will perform? Sound off in the comments below.
On a lighter note, did you hear about the iPad Nano?
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