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July 2008
Television views somewhat more prepared for the DTV transition
Nielsen Co. is a little more optimistic that television viewers are getting ready for the transition from analog to digital television signals, the research and polling company said today.
As the Feb. 17, 2009 deadline approaches for the changeover by broadcast television stations, Nielsen finds households are “somewhat more prepared” for the cutoff of analog television.
In January, when it did its first survey, Nielsen found 10.5 percent of households nationally would have no operable television in the digital world. Its survey in July showed that figure dropping to 9.3 percent.
In addition, in July, Nielsen found that 20.9 percent of sample households had at least one TV set that would not work after the transition date. In January, that figure was 23 percent.
Sounds like there are still a lot of viewers out there who may not be viewing anything on Feb. 17 next year.
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Dell gears up for back to school and the holidays
Dell launched three new home computers today, including twist on the traditional desktop and a notebook designed with students in mind.
The announcement comes as Dell starts to ramp up its releases for the second half of the year, which includes back-to-school and holiday shopping.
Dell started online sales of its new Studio Hybrid model today. The oval-shaped PC is 80 percent smaller than most other small desktop towers and uses 70 percent less energy, the company said.
The Hybrid, which starts at $499, comes in six colors. Customers also can replace the plastic case with more environmentally-friendly bamboo for an additional $150. It will show up in stores later this fall.
Dell also added two models to its Inspiron line of home computers. The Inspiron 13, a 13-inch laptop, weighs less than five pounds and is targeted at students. A $699 version of the notebook will go on sale next week at Wal-Mart stores, and it will be available online later in August.
The Inspiron 518, a gloss-black desktop designed for home use, starts at $349 and is available immediately online.
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Can Cuil be cooler than Google?
Can any search engine make a dent in the Google juggernaut? Many have tried and failed.
Today, the latest challenger is Cuil, a start-up founded by former Google engineers.
Cuil (pronounced “cool”) claims to cover more than 120 billion Web pages and says that is three times as many as Google. Cuil also wants to make searching friendlier, supplying a results page that resembles an online magazine rather than a stack of text links and summaries.
Cuil has a team of experienced online search experts and $33 million in venture capital backing, but is that enough to take on Google?
Cuil may have a lot going for it, but there’s an enormous mountain to climb before people start saying: “Go Cuil those directions to the mall.”
UPDATE: Ouch. For a company with big ambitions, today could’ve gone better. Slow searches for some. No searches for others (just a message about servers “running a bit hot.”) And complaints about incomplete or just strange search results. A company spokesman has reportedly pleaded Day One bugs and the massive traffic. He promises things will improve. We’ll be watching.
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TiVo and Amazon teaming up so you never have to leave the couch
One more reason not to move from the couch.
TiVo, the digital video recorder maker, is teaming up with Amazon.com to provide consumers the ability to buy products using their TV remote controls.
The idea is to give people the opportunity to impulse-buy an item, like a DVD, CD or book, that’s being hawked on a talk show like the Daily Show or Oprah. No getting up to go to the PC and missing what’s on the tube.
Using TiVo’s Universal Swivel Search, a search feature for both broadcast TV and broadband downloads, the digital couch potato will be able to buy an item immediately or put it in Amazon’s shopping cart for purchase later. Advertisers will also be able to target audiences through TiVo, using interactive tags, Gold Star sponsorships and program placement, the company says.
It’s interesting this is coming from TiVo, when the whole purpose of the machine was to eliminate the commercial advertising.
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Gateway dropping direct sales
As goes the mothership, so goes Gateway.
The company said this morning it will stop selling computers directly to end users. Like Acer, its parent company, Gateway now will sell products solely through retailers, partners and other online sites.
In a release, Acer’s U.S. general manager Mark Hill said the company is “shifting Gateway’s distribution method to better align with Acer’s successful global strategy, which was built upon an indirect model.”
Over the past three years, Acer has been one of the fastest-growing computer makers on the planet. While it ships far fewer PCs than Hewlett-Packard and Dell, its volumes have grown much more quickly.
Analysts have attributed much of the growth to a strong lineup of notebook computers and its presence in retail stores.
Acer continued to gain ground in the most-recent quarter, according to two research firms that track PC shipments. However, its growth has slowed in the U.S. as it digests its October 2007 acquisition of Gateway.
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What do you Knol: Google’s newest offering
First there was Wikipedia, now there’s Knol.
Google just opened its own encyclopedia-like online site for user-generated content, which it is calling Knol (a unit of knowledge, as it explains).
Just like with Wikipedia, Knol lets users work together in what Google calls “moderated collaboration” on articles. But with Knol, edits or changes by others can first be vetted by the original author of a subject before the changes hit the Web.
Here’s the real Googlization (or more accurately, monetization) of Knol: Users can also include advertisements from Google’s AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will give them a share of the proceeds of those ads.
In its public debut, Knol at the very least is a little prettier than Wikipedia and has some interesting starting topics. Featured “Knols” on the page Wednesday included a piece on “How to Backpack,” as well as articles on tooth pain, lung cancer and toilet clogs.
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Icahn on board at Yahoo, but still sniffing for sale
Yahoo Inc. is giving in to Carl Icahn, granting him three seats on its board of directors in an attempt to appease the incendiary investor and snuffing out at least some of the fireworks at its upcoming annual meeting.
In a statement, billionaire Icahn said he was pleased with the move, but left open the possibility that he would still push for a sale of the Internet icon. Icahn, who owns almost 5 percent of Yahoo’s outstanding stock, has been pushing to replace Yahoo’s entire board of directors and to resume talks with Microsoft Corp., which was at least previously interested in buying all or part of the Internet company.
“I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!’s Board and management team to help the Company achieve its full potential,” Icahn said. “While I continue to believe that the sale of the whole company or the sale of its search business in the right transaction must be given full consideration, I share the view that Yahoo!’s valuable collection of assets positions it well to continue expanding its online leadership and enhancing returns to stockholders.”
Though the agreement may have becalmed Icahn, don’t expect that Yahoo’s annual meeting Aug. 1 will be all handshakes and happy talk.
They may not be as rich and influential as Icahn, a lot of other Yahoo investors are still pretty unhappy with Yahoo managers’ handling of the Microsoft bid, and think their shares are worth a whole lot more than the $21.75 or so they’re trading at today.
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New AMD chief sees clear path to recovery
On Thursday, the day he was named chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dirk Meyer wore jeans and cowboy boots to work. It’s his usual office attire, unless he’s traveling or at a formal meeting.
The casual attire fits Meyer’s approach to work - straighttforward, practical, analytical and definitely not fancy.
Meyer, 46, is an up-from-the-ranks chip design engineer who has been being groomed for the past two years to succeed Hector Ruiz as AMD’s chief executive.
The change happened sooner than planned. AMD announced the switch late Thursday, after it reported its seventh quarterly loss in a row.
Wall Street is not happy with the company, but Meyer sees a clear, logical path to recovery.
“There is a sense among people who don’t know the company well that we have to hit another home run” to pull AMD out of its slump, Meyer said Friday. “The fact is, a series of singles will work fine.”
AMD has talked about its product plans with potential customers, who say they like them.
“Our customers really want us to succeed,” he said. “I talk with customers all the time. They are very clear with us. They say: ‘What we need you guys to do is execute dependably.’ ”
Despite almost two years of losses, Meyer said AMD is on the verge of a rebound. It has just introduced promising products that should begin shipping in high volume in the second half of the year.
Executives have essentially guaranteed Wall Street that AMD will achieve an operating profit in the second half of the year.
And Meyer says the company is just months away from a major restructuring that will spin the manufacturing operations off into a separate company, wth new ownership.
Without the expensive manufacturing operations, AMD can concentrate on designing, marketing and selling chips that compete effectively against its two tough competitors - Intel Corp., the largest and richest company in the semiconductor industry, and Nvidia Corp., the foremost maker of graphics chips.
“Hector said he will be the most disappointed man on Earth if it is not done by the end of the year, and I will be the second most “ disappointed, Meyer said. “It certainly needs to happen to remove this cloud over our head relative to the financial viability of the company.”
Despite the big challenges AMD faces, Meyer sees plenty of opportunities. The company plays in two large and profitable markets - graphics and computer processors - and it only has one major competitor in each of those markets. That, h e believes is a far better situation than many chip markets where a half dozen or more companies fight it out.
Meyer says the new job is right for him. “If I wasn’t doing this, there is no other job in high tech that I would want to have. Anything else would be boring. This is not boring.”
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Dirk Meyer succeeds Hector Ruiz as AMD CEO
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has replaced Hector Ruiz as chief executive, naming Dirk Meyer to succeed him. Ruiz will remain chairman.
The announcement came as AMD reported its seventh quarterly loss in a row, including a per-share loss that was bigger than Wall Street had expected. Its shares fell almost 10 percent on that news in extended trading.
Meyer, 46, had been AMD’s chief operating officer. In a press release this afternoon, the company’s board said his election was “the final phase of a two-year succession plan” developed by directors and top management.
Meyer joined AMD in 1995 and led the company’s microprocessor business from 2001 to 2006. He became chief operating officer two years ago and was elected to AMD’s board last year.
He takes over the tough job of leading the chip company’s David against Goliath Intel Corp. Intel controls most of the processor marketplace, and it has turned up the pressure on its smaller rival over the past year.
In addition to staying on as chairman, Ruiz, 62, will continue to lead AMD’s evolving “asset-light” strategy, which analysts expect will mean the spinning off of its manufacturing operations.
Ruiz said today he hopes to complete the program this year.
Ruiz joined AMD in 2000 as chief operating officer. He became CEO on April 25, 2002.
His tenure was marked by high highs and low lows, and often little in between. The company scored a clean victory over Intel in 2003 when it released the Opteron processor for servers. But Intel since has flexed its size and resources to squeeze AMD — a recurring theme in the competition between the companies.
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PC shipments stay strong; top vendors all make gains
Worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter increased 16 percent over the same period last year, to almost 71.9 million units, according to Gartner Inc., a technology research firm.
Dell recorded a second consecutive quarter of faster shipment growth than rival Hewlett-Packard, according to both research firms. But H-P also posted a strong quarter, and it retained a wide advantage as the world’s largest computer maker.
H-P finished the quarter with 18.1 percent of the worldwide PC market on shipment growth of 17.1 percent, Gartner said. Dell easily held the second spot with 15.6 percent market share on shipment growth of 21.9 percent.
Acer was third with a 9.4 percent market share, and Lenovo fourth with 7.8 percent.
In the U.S., Apple again posted a big quarter. Its second-quarter domestic shipments increased 38.1 percent, Gartner said, pushing it past Acer into the No. 3 spot in the U.S.
Dell held 31.9 percent of the U.S. market, Gartner said, followed by H-P with 25.3 percent, Apple with 8.5 percent and Acer with 8.1 percent.
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Downloads of IPhone 3G applications hit 10 million the first weekend
Downloads for the 3G Apple iPhone topped 10 million in the first weekend.
Users are doing multiple downloads, probably because there are 200 free applications on the iTunes site where there’s a list of the top mobile programs. There are also 600 applications that you have to pay for. In the top 10, they range from 99 cents to $9.99.
Steve Jobs says that 90 percent of the applications are less than $10.
There are some really useful mobile programs such as one free applications called Where. It allows users to search for locations such as pizza places and gas stations and then gives the address and directions to any one of them by touching the location on the screen.
There are also some silly applications, like PhoneSaber. It creates a picture of a Star Wars light saber on the screen and then makes its buzzing sound when the phone is waved back and forth. Another toy, this one for $2.99 cents, called iBeer, has a picture of a foamy mug of the suds on the screen. When you move it back and forth, the suds move, too.
The most popular free application is Remote, a program that allows users to control the tunes on their computers remotely over a Wi-Fi network. And among pay programs, Super Monkey Ball, at $9.99, is tops. It’s similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario Brothers games.
If you see anything that really wows you, let me know.
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Texas gunnin’ for video games
LOS ANGELES - Speaking at the E3 video game industry conference here today, Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he will seek new state incentives to try and recruit more gaming companies to the Lone Star State.
Perry wasn’t specific, but said would ask the state legislature to boost the current incentives, which give game developers up to $250,000 if they develop a game in the state, using state talent. In doing so, he hopes to compete even more with states like Georgia and Louisiana, which also have big incentives for game makers, and industry leaders California and Washington state.
“Texas is the third-biggest game-producing state in the country … and I’m gunning to be No. 1,” Perry told a sparse crowd at E3 this morning.
Perry is the only state governor to ever give a keynote at E3, and this year he was the biggest non-industry name on the agenda. In the past, the gaming conference has attracted rock and movie stars and a wide variety of state and local dignitaries, but show organizers have dramatically scaled back the event and limited attendance.
Though there were only about 40 people in attendance at his morning speech, Perry didn’t hesitate to play to the crowd.
In his somewhat rambling half-hour talk, he characterized the gaming industry as the answer for nothing less than the nation’s widespread economic problems and its poor physical fitness and said virtual worlds could someday even inspire a better real-world.
Following a short video showing Austin-area gaming companies, Perry - in true Texas spirit - even went as far as to say the industry’s competitive sprit was not unlike that of “Davy Crockett … and those guys at the Alamo.”
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Research firm: Five companies make GRADE for tech disposal
Technology disposal and recycling is growing into a huge business. But the industry is still quite fragmented, and the process different firms use to dispose of a company’s old equipment is far from consistent.
IDC hopes to inject a little more certainty into the process. The technology research firm set up a new certification process to grade the disposal programs offered by U.S. computer makers, scrap companies and recycling/disposal companies. It released the results today.
Five companies earned IDC’s G.R.A.D.E. (Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise) certification: Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM among computer makers; Redemtech and Intechra among firms that focus specifically on technology disposal and recycling.
To compile the study, IDC rated 34 processes at 25 of the country’s largest disposal and recycling firms. It certified the five companies that scored 75 percent or higher on those criteria.
The tech-disposal industry is still very fragmented, but the small, local scrap companies are seeing increased competition from large recycling companies and computer makers.
Meanwhile, pressure has ratcheted up on corporate technology managers, who have to ensure that their company’s data is secure and its equipment is properly disposed of.
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Intel unveils new chips
Intel Corp. unveiled a new lineup of laptop chips Monday night that it claims are faster, better and use less power than anything on the market.
The five new Centrino Core 2 Duo processors help put Intel further ahead of rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and also indicate the changing face of portable computing, according to Intel officials.
“When we first introduced Intel Centrino back in 2003, there were very few Wi-Fi hotspots, YouTube videos and social media didn’t really exist, “thin and light” only referred to weight goals and desktop PCs outsold notebooks by a very wide margin,” Mooly Eden,general manager of the company’s Mobile Platforms Group said in a statement. “Today, notebooks outsell desktops in the U.S, and we’re paving the way to HD entertainment, rich online gaming, faster broadband wireless speeds and an easier and more secure way for businesses to manage, update and repair their notebook fleets.”
The new chips will help speed up the computing power and let users do things like view high-definition videos on their laptops, all while using less battery power, according to Intel.
Nearly 250 new consumer and business notebook PCs are being designed with the new chips. Many will hit the market just in time for back-to-school shopping.
See more here.
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Dell to spruce up its corporate laptops
Dell is planning to add a bit more style and a few new technologies to its line of business notebooks.
A recent peek at the new Latitude laptops showed a black, textured exterior, an edgier shape and a logo offset to the side instead of the middle. (Please pardon the amateur photography from yours truly…)
The laptops almost certainly will carry the new Intel Centrino 2 chipset expected to be released tonight. Few other details on the new laptops were forthcoming.
Separately, Dell said today it will offer a download to facilitate multi-touch capability on its XT tablet computers, and said it would start selling 128-gigabyte solid-state drives in its high-end notebooks.
Because of their durability, solid-state drives are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to traditional hard drives with spinning disks. Dell will begin selling the 128-gigabyte version for $649 in its corporate notebooks. It will add them to its Alienware gaming systems next week, the company said.
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Apple sells 1 million 3G iPhones even with the first day hassles
Apple sold 1 million 3G iPhones in its first three days, the company says.
Not bad considering it took 74 days to reach that total in the iPhone’s initial rollout. Then again it wasn’t sold in 21 countries the first time around either.
That puts 7 million iPhones in circulation, and moves Apple closer to its goal of 10 million by the end of the year.
In addition, Techcrunch.com says there were also 10 million applications downloaded. Of the 800 applications available, 200 are free.
The big weekend occurred despite a major hassle on Friday at Apple and AT&T outlets. There was a global problem with Apple’s iTunes servers that prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store.
Instead, employees told buyers to go home and perform the last step by connecting their phones to their own computers.
It was a tough pill to swallow after they stood in line before daybreak to be among the first customers in the store.
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Not everybody loves the iPhone
There’s always a naysayer, even with the much-hyped 3G iPhone.
Mitch Wagner, in a blog on InformationWeek.com, said the new cell phone wasn’t a breakthrough device. He, as other reviewers have pointed out, complained that you’ll surf the Internet faster only if you live in one of the 280 U.S. cities where AT&T has upgrades to the faster network speeds.
He said the use of 3G will drain battery life quicker, and it was already “marginal” in the original handset.
It may also have built-in GPS coverage. But it can’t copy the turn-by-turn navigation of one of the more expensive GPS units used in vehicles. If a building blocks the signal, it can only locate the general area you’re in and not the precise location.
Wagner’s blog pulled together his own observations along with those of other reviewers so you get a pretty encompassing collection of the iPhone’s foibles.
He suggested looking at what new applications are available on the Apple Web site before buying. Still, for heavy users, the GPS and 3G capabilities are nice to have.
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iPhone 3G delivers on much-hyped speed at $199
Apple has solved the number-one gripe about last year’s iPhone — the speed.
The 3G version is indeed faster to surf the Internet than the first iPhone. The company says it’s three times faster. I didn’t necessarily find it so. Still, users must contend with an Internet that’s clogged at times. So when I tried it, it blazed sometimes and hobbled along at others.
The built-in GPS capability, which the first iPhone didn’t have, is very cool. You hit a button, and the phone will find you. If you’re inside a building, it will triangulate your position using AT&T’s cell towers and put a circle on the screen around the general area where you and your phone are.
Perhaps the biggest change in the long run is the hundreds of applications that the 3G iPhone has available to it. Apple opened up the phone so developers could write mobile programs for it.
The applications are downloadable directly to the phone from the Apple Web site. But some are so large that it might be better to download those directly to your computer and then put them on your phone.
Apple has placed an icon on the home screen for it. You touch that to seamlessly activate a list of the 25 featured applications. But they also are accessible via a top-25 button as well as “categories” and “search” functions.
I selected “eBay Mobile” and hit the button that said “free.” Other applications displayed their prices. The user taps the price and an explanation of the application pops up and you have the option to install with a button in the upper right-hand corner.
The home screen and touch-screen keyboard haven’t changed, and the phone will shift from horizontal to vertical depending on how the user holds it. This may be a no-brainer but the keyboard is easier to pluck when the screen is horizontal.
The curved form factor on the back of the phone fits the user’s hand better. And the tap, pitch and flick capability of moving content up and down the screen and for making the letters and numbers larger — the same as iPhone 1.0 — is still in use. I found it a bit slippery but I’m sure users get accustomed to it quickly.
I didn’t use this option but Apple is hawking a new “push” technology called MobileMe that will automatically input new entries to the calendar or address book on your computer in the phone and vice versa. It sounds like a handy option.
Also, the voice quality of the phone itself is better, apparently because Apple installed a higher quality set of speakers at the bottom of the phone.
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Expect a longer wait in line for the iPhone
More iPhone food for thought.
If you’re planning to line up for the 8 a.m. launch tomorrow of the 3G iPhone, don’t expect a simply in-and-out procedure.
To keep people from activating the phone on their own (remember, the young hacker who beat the technology in the week or so after the initial iPhone launch last year), the stores are requiring activation in the store. Last year, you took them home and activated them through iTunes.
So if you have to fill out paperwork at the Apple Store before a store clerk activates your new phone, it certainly will take significantly longer. Last year, one iPhone customer left the store every 20 seconds, according Fortune.com.
Apple and AT&T are even telling customers to go in the day before and fill out paperwork so they can quickly activate their phone on Friday.
And on another front, the tip that only one iPhone will be sold to each customer isn’t entirely true. We’ve heard that customers ordering AT&T’s family plan will be allowed to purchase more than one device.
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The iPhone rumor mill kicks up again
With the Apple 3G iPhone coming out Friday, there are rumors flying all over the blogosphere.
Techcrunch.com is speculating that the Apple App Store, where users will be able to download cool applications for their new phone, will open ahead of the cell phone’s launch because mobile software developers had to get their applications in by Monday so they could be reviewed.
And InformationWeek.com and others were saying that Apple and AT&T, the iPhone carrier in the U.S., would limit sales to one phone per person. Customers could buy two during the last iPhone rave.
Maybe that’s not so bad. Many buyers last time got stuck with two because demand on eBay and Craigslist slacked off quickly a year ago.
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Swiss spam & cheese
Think you get a lot of spam? Be glad you’re not in Switzerland.
The land of alps and edelweiss was the most spammed country int he world last month, according to the latest figures from email security and anti-spam company MessageLabs.
Nearly 85 percent of all e-mails in June in Switzerland were spam, according to the company. Canada was second on the world spam list, followed respectively by China, the United Kingdom and Germany. The United States was ninth on the list in June, with about 69 percent of all email traffic being spam.
Here are some other frightful facts from MessageLab’s June vulnerability report:
*One out of every 134 emails in June contained malware such as a virus or worm.
*One out of every 277 emails were part of a “phishing attack” designed to trick users into visiting Web sites and giving up sensitive personal or financial information.
*Among the most common (and most cheesy) spam emails included subject lines such as “What a stupid face you have!,” “Scandal rocks Obama as lurid sex video leaked!” and “Brad Pitt strips naked for Playgirl.”
Those spam emails led anyone who opened them to phishing sites linked to a search engine (Dogpile) and a porn site (PornTube), where further interaction could lead to user to inadvertently download a computer virus.
Perhaps the worse experience with spam wasn’t in Switzerland, however, but in the Marshall Islands. There, the nation’s only Internet service provider was taken off-line for about 18 hours when it was hit by a tidal wave of spam that quadrupled the ISP’s volume, according to MessageLabs.
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Walk off lunch or enlarge carbon footprint? Ask the GPS.
Putting a green spin on personal navigation, Navitime of Japan today released a new version of its pedestrian GPS software that spells out the health and environmental impact of getting from point A to point B. 
Searching for a route on a phone, laptop or other mobile gadget triggers travel options including directions for walking, driving and public transportation. For the walking parts, the program estimates calories burned. For car trips, it guesses at carbon dioxide emissions.
The application for U.S. users is available for download and is a free trial until Sept. 30. After that, you’ll have to subscribe to learn how your errands affect your waistline and the climate.
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On your next cell phone: How much will you spend
All you fence sitters, are you ready to take sides?
A report on mobile devices by ABI Research, the Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based technology market research outfit, said that ownership of mid-range cell phones, the ones that most of us own, will be overtaken by 2013 by either high-end or low-cost devices.
Wireless manufacturers are offering not only greater functionality but phones that are becoming easier to use. And carriers want cell phone subscribers to buy smartphones because the service plans tend to be more expensive. For example, the upcoming iPhone 3G service plan starts at $69.99 a month. Midrange-phone plans start at $39.99.
The low-end market is being driven by growth overseas in Brazil, China and India, although if this recession gets worse, we all may be looking to scale down.
So which way will you go: Higher or lower?
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After further review, IBM still tops in server revenue
Hewlett-Packard’s reign as king of server mountain didn’t last very long.
Gartner said today that it revised its closely watched estimates of server revenue and put IBM back atop the pile for the first quarter of 2008.
The technology-research firm’s initial report had credited H-P with $4.0 billion in server revenue, compared with IBM’s $3.9 billion. It was the first time H-P had taken the top spot.
While the revised report keeps IBM at $3.9 billion for the first quarter, it drops H-P to $3.8 billion. That gives IBM 29.4 percent of worldwide server revenue and H-P 28.3 percent. Dell remains third with 12.3 percent of worldwide server revenue.
Gartner analyst Jeffrey Hewitt said the firm revised its figures based on “updated guidance and additional analysis of the data.”
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The Dare joins the iPhone 3G and the Instinct
Samsung’s Instinct is out; the iPhone is almost here. But one phone that’s gotten lost in the hype is LG’s Dare, a 3G cell phone in the Verizon Wireless cadre of devices.
PCMag.com did a review of the phone and said it is similar to the Instinct and iPhone, with a couple of notable differences.
The Dare has a 3.2 megapixel camera compared to the 2 megapixels for the other two phones. But its browser is clunky and slow at bringing up Web page, one of the problems with the first iPhone.
It offers similar flexibility in navigating its functions as its competitors, and a touch screen that PCMag called “accurate and responsive.”
The Dare sells for $199.99 with a $50 mail-in rebate and the standard 2-year contract.
This means T-Mobile is the only provider without a similar device. But it’s got first dibs on Google’s Android operating system, whenever it’s ready.
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AT&T and the 3G iPhone by the numbers (service fees)
The 3G iPhone comes out bright and early at 8 a.m. on July 11.
You’ve all heard about the price: $199 for 8 gigabyte model; $299 for 16 gigs. That’s with a 2-year contract. In the future, AT&T says it will offer a no-contract-required option for $599 (8 gigs) and $699 (16 gigs), but it hasn’t said when.
Below is the list of AT&T Mobility’s service charges I pulled from FierceWireless.com: LINK
AT&T NationSM Unlimited: Unlimited anytime minutes for $129.99 a month. AT&T Nation 1350: 1350 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $109.99 a month. AT&T Nation 900: 900 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $89.99 a month. AT&T Nation 450: 450 anytime minutes and 5,000 night and weekend minutes for $69.99 a month.
AT&T also will offer its “FamilyTalk” plans, with bundled voice and unlimited data (email and Web browsing), starting at $129.99 a month for two iPhone 3G lines. Up to three additional iPhone lines can be added for $39.99 each.
Existing AT&T customers pay $399 (8 gigs) and $499 (16 gigs) if they’re not eligible for an upgrade discount. They also pay an upgrade fee of $18 while new customers pay $36.
That should give you something to think about before buying.
