Recent Comments:
NPD says 30% of iPhone 3G buyers switched carriers, Google Street View and more said to be in 2.2 firmware {Engadget}
Oct 6th 2008 2:42PM I've learned not to trust NPD statements about Apple products. They seem to be wrong, or at the very least misleading, about most of them. Since the market share numbers for carriers remained almost the same, does that mean that ATT is shedding roughly 30% of its users, or something doesn't add up.
Apple introducing new manufacturing process, MacBook 'Brick'? {Engadget}
Oct 5th 2008 5:26PM Apple is just trying to piss off Green Peace some more. Cutting an entire block of aluminum down just to make the housing of a laptop? What a wonderful use of material!
Anyhow, doing away with user serviceable parts entirely, no surprise. Claiming "Aircraft aluminum" of 5053 aluminum just to save a few bucks? Also not gonna be surprised.
What's sadder, that everyone believes a rumor that Apple will take away a user's ability to open their own machines, or that their customers see this as a "feature"?
BIOTRONIK gets go-ahead for GSM-based implant monitoring system {Engadget}
Oct 2nd 2008 3:01PM So you're telling me that doctors, with their dozens of years of schooling and experience, are now going to make the decision on whether or not to check in on a patient based on a "traffic light" system?
Well, that's just freakin' wonderful.
Apple drops iPhone NDA {Engadget}
Oct 1st 2008 5:46PM Sorry, should clarify opening line: this only impacts software ONCE it has been released. Both old software and new applications that get approved by Apple.
Apple drops iPhone NDA {Engadget}
Oct 1st 2008 5:45PM In short: No.
This only impacts software that has ALREADY been released. This does NOT include software you are currently developing, nor software that gets rejected.
For example: NOW: if you write an app and it gets rejected, you are not only forbidden from talking about that, but you can't turn your code over to the community so that everyone could benefit from all your hard work. However, if your app IS approved you can talk about it, give out your source code, etc.
BEFORE: Even if your app was accepted and published, you weren't allowed to talk about it, share code with other developers, post code samples on community sites, etc.
So maybe someone can write a "code samples" application that covers a lot of the basics, get it approved, and then release the source for that, as a way to get around the "no one can talk to anyone else" rules that are still in place.
HD DVD sales apparently still going strong {Engadget}
Sep 30th 2008 2:48PM I'm the same way. I've really loved the companies dumping box sets especially on Amazon. I've got an HD-DVD and BluRay player, and I personally tend to buy the HD-DVDs from the "new & used" section on Amazon. So many people dumping perfectly good media. And lets be real, there's maybe one or two movies made lately that I actually want to buy, so I snag those on BluRay.
Verizon getting a CDMA iPhone that runs Windows Mobile, clears acne {Engadget}
Sep 29th 2008 5:54PM It is kind of surprising how anti-CDMA Engadget (at least Chris Ziegler) is in this post. CDMA provides significantly higher bandwidth and more efficiency than GSM. This is why CDMA carriers are able to offer a much more rapid roll-out of 3G services than GSM carriers are.
And yeah, current CDMA technology will be phased out in the next decade, in favor of next-generation CDMA. Just like current-generation GSM is going to be phased out for...wait for it....NEXT GENERATION CDMA!
GSM is the dying technology. That's why it's so popular. It is much cheaper to deploy an old technology than a new one. Would you make the decision that shooting quality should be SD since most people don't have HD yet? Of course not, even though SD cameras are much cheaper. The relatively minimal investment in developing a CDMA version of a handset is trivial compared to the more than 200M potential customers worldwide that it opens up.
Saying that GSM has "billions" of customers is a bit misleading. 3G is no where near that level of penetration, the iPhone is going relatively unnoticed outside the US, and the majority of the GSM users are in developing nations and places where an iPhone or other high-end GSM device would NEVER cross a few thousand units.
So really, what's the problem, Mr. Ziegler? Why the axe to grind against a technology that is both technically and empirically better?
HTC can churn out CDMA and GSM versions of the exact same phone, why not Apple?
Amazon: 6 million DRM-free songs on T-Mobile G1 {Engadget}
Sep 23rd 2008 5:55PM @sti3: You can grab TCMP for Windows Mobile and listen to internet streams to your heart's content, even the higher-bitrate ones. I've had no problem streaming to my EvDO phone. Can't say I've ever tried it on a GSM 3G one though.
As for streaming music to Android? Here's one of the App finalists, with a video walk-through. At 4:40ish they show the Internet Radio interface. Also, it is just a nice looking player.
http://www.digginmobile.com/
Video: Android walkthrough on T-Mobile G1 {Engadget}
Sep 23rd 2008 5:12PM @Andrew: "Any chance I can 'long press' and delete the entire user interface? Talk about fugly and dated."
Actually, yes. Android gives every element in the OS the ability to be superseded by another application you install. You can replace the music player, contacts, phone, even the general UI. Your list of ways in which it is different from the iPhone, while somewhat comprehensive, doesn't exactly read like a list of "flaws" to me. You don't like creating shortcuts, but would rather flip through a list of the dozens of apps on your device? That's cool. Some of us do. If you don't wanna use it, don't use it. If you think you can do better, go grab the Android SDK and get cracking! The beauty of an open-source device like this is that you could change everything and anything about it, and Google (or T-Mobile) will never pull down your app for improving their device. Isn't that neat?
In true, open-source form, "Put up or shut up."
If you decide to go the "put up" route, may I recommend "Hello, Android" from the Pragmatic Press. It is quite comprehensive and written at a very approachable level. Plus it is written around the use of Eclipse, which is virtually identical between mac, windows, and Linux versions.
Apple prepping a 32GB iPhone update, bringing back at-home activation? {Engadget}
Sep 21st 2008 2:04PM @EmoChick....whatever
Sorry, but I have to disagree with you here. Verizon may cripple MANY of their entry-level phones to try and push more services and sales (hell, they have phones that don't have an mp3 codec so that you have to buy music from them at $2/song), but as an Android developer let me tell you it is nearly impossible for a carrier to cripple Android.
The Android processing stack gives ALL SOFTWARE, even the core apps like Contacts and Phone the same priority. They can also be supplemented by any application the user installs. Given the very open nature of Android, even if Verizon ripped out every application on there and replaced it with their own, it'd be a 2-second process to simply install the universal versions from any other phone.
To be honest, the thing hurting Android right now more than anything IS the devices. I don't think (or at least I don't hope) that the G1 is the only Android phone to come out over the next few months, but if so it would just be more of Google's perpetual "beta" - the G1 is not a mass consumer device, and that's probably why they're giving it to T-Mobile, and not, say Verizon or ATT.
