Mobile Computing

iPad Editorial Cartoons

Frank La Vigne — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:22:00 GMT

Editorial cartoonists chime in on the madness/hype/lead in to the iPad launch. [More cartoons]

Technorati Tags: iPad,Humor,Apple

Sprint Fail

Frank La Vigne — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:05:00 GMT

All I wanted to do was send a text message to my mom, who is a Sprint customer, since my phone battery died.

Sprint wants you to log in to their web site in order to help prevent spammers from sending out messages.

That’s understandable.

I had forgotten my password and when I finally got the “reset password” email complete with link: I was treated to this:

Fortunately, there’s more than one way to send a text message from your computer.

I used to actually like Nextel, but since the Sprint merger, not so much.

Technorati Tags: Sprint,Fail

AT&T Beefs Up Network in Preparation for iPad

Frank La Vigne — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:36:00 GMT

According to Network World, AT&T is investing around $2 billion to upgrade and expands the company’s 3G coverage.

Just one day after Apple announced that its new iPad tablet would be available on both AT&T and Verizon, AT&T began touting investments in its 3G HSPA network that the company believes will give it the ability to handle increased traffic from mobile devices. During a conference call Thursday, AT&T COO John Stankey said that the company was investing $2 billion in improving its wireless network in 2010 and that it would construct roughly 2,000 new cell sites to expand its coverage.
AT&T says that a big part of its wireless network upgrade will come through its transition to HSPA 7.2 technology that the company expects will cover 90% of its 3G network by the end of 2011. HSPA 7.2 is a variation of the GSM-based HSPA technology that has a peak speed of 7.2Mbps, although AT&T cautions that most users are unlikely to see data rates approaching theoretical peak speeds.

Clearly, it’s the threat of competition from Verizon that’s got AT&T dropping money into their network. Try as they may want to spin it, AT&T does not have an exclusive deal with iPad in the same way they did with the iPhone. If they were really that into customer service for the sake of customer service, why did they wait until the iPad’s unveiling?

Competition works wonders.

Technorati Tags: iPad,AT&T,Verizon,3g,HPSA

How to Spot a Child of Mine

Frank La Vigne — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:27:00 GMT

Today was the awesomely successful Richmond Code Camp. Unfortunately, this was also the day we had our baby shower.

Speaking of babies, here’s a quick guide on how to spot my kid in the nursery.

Technorati Tags: Humor,Richmond Code Camp,Babies

Big Apple Announcement Set for Today

Frank La Vigne — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:44:00 GMT

While the tablet world is abuzz about today’s big Apple announcement, not everyone (myself included) is convinced that at Mac tablet will be announced today.

From Ars Technica: [emphasis added]

On September 9, the company plans to announce music-only items and not talk about the fabled tablet, the source says. It will take place in San Francisco (though the writeup says "most likely at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where it has occurred in years past," but this is not entirely true—2007's music event was held at Moscone but last year, it was scheduled at Yerba Buena because of a conflict at Moscone). "Our sources insist it will not involve any discussion whatsoever of the tablet that Apple is reportedly developing," wrote All Things D's John Paczkowski.
Rumors have been ramping up about the tablet in recent weeks, but most Apple watchers don't expect it to be released (or even announced, in some cases) until 2010.

A MacTablet is inevitable, but not imminent. I seriously doubt that we’ll see anything but a new line of iPods announced today.

My guess is that there won’t be a MacTablet until foldable screens are more proven and then they’ll call it the iScroll, or something catchy like that.

UPDATE: It turned out to be an event to announce iTunes 9.

Technorati Tags: Tablet PC,Apple,Mactablet

Dilbert on Judging a Book by Its Apps

Frank La Vigne — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:36:00 GMT

This Dilbert strip is for all you iPhone devotees out there.

Apparently, there is an app in iPhone App Store called “Ask Bart!” that does exactly this.

I suppose the whoopee cushion app would rank as a deal breaker for her as well.

[found via Pete Brown’s Twitter feed]

Technorati Tags: iPhone,Humor,Dilbert

HP DV2 Unboxing

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:07:00 GMT

Fellow Tablet PC MVP Warner Crocker recorded this video while unboxing the HP DV2.

There's no mention of an oversized box, though.

Looks like a neat device.

Technorati Tags: HP dv2,Warner Crocker,HP

Small Computer Big Box

Frank La Vigne — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:23:00 GMT

Tablet/Mobile guru site jkOnTheRun receives a review unit HP dv2 netbook and, much to Kevin's surprise, the box is huge.

That's not very green now is it, HP?

Technorati Tags: HP,HP dv2,jkOnTheRun,Kevin Tofel,Humor,netbook

Kids Start With the Mobile Tech Early

Frank La Vigne — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:39:00 GMT

I just saw this cartoon and it was too good not to share.

Technorati Tags: Mobile,GenY,Humor

Swype Keyboard Input for Tablet PCs and Phones

Frank — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:30:00 GMT

CNet News has a story on a novel approach to text input on mobile devices.

It's called Swype and you can "draw out" the path for a word on an on-screen keyboard.

Like so:

Here's a video demonstration of Swype.

[found via 37Signals]

Technorati Tags: Sqype,Tablet PC,Touch Computing,Mobile Computing