Spotty wireless broadband connectivity for some of Apple Inc.'s new iPhones most likely results from a hardware problem introduced during mass production, a Swedish technical magazine reported Wednesday.
Submitted by Brad Reese on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 2:49am. According to the wireless security researchers at AirTight Networks , this Saturday, August 9th at 4:30PM in the Riviera Las Vegas, they will be sharing with ...
iPhone 3G users have been complaining about dropped calls, abrupt network switches, poor reception and service interruptions.
One financial analyst recalls similar complaints with 3G phones launched in Europe five years ago and speculates that the culprit could be the chipset inside the iPhone 3G. The new handset runs on an Infineon 3G chipset.
"We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier," Richard Windsor, a financial analyst at Nomura, wrote in a research paper. "This is not surprising as the Infineon 3G chipset solution has never really been tested in the hands of users. Some people will not experience these problems, as it is only in areas where the radio signal weakens that the immaturity of the stack really shows."
Is an iDisaster Brewing?
Infineon could not immediately be reached for comment on the possibility that its chip could be the cause of 3G reception woes. Apple has not yet acknowledged any issues with its latest handset.
Although some commentators have made strong arguments that Apples 3G issues are due to a hardware issue rather than a network or firmware problem, at this point it's impossible to know exactly where the problem lies, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research.
"If it is an underlying problem with the processor, that makes repairing it either difficult or impossible. If that is the case, that could be a disaster for Apple," King said. "In any case, the 3G performance is obviously a problem."
King figures both Apple and AT&T are...
The new "E"-series laptops are clearly targeted to corporate users, where Dell has an especially strong installed base of customers. Dell claims to have solicited input from more than 4,000 IT professionals and business users in the production of the new line, and product management says it invested more than one million hours in the engineering process.
In the announcement, CEO Michael Dell said the company has shipped more business laptops since 1995 than any other computer manufacturer. Dell is number one in the U.S. market, according to analysts, but trails HP in world sales.
From Slim to RuggedThe ultra-light Latitude E4200 weighs in at a mere 2.2 pounds with a 12.1-inch screen. The Latitude E4300, with a larger 13.3-inch screen, weighs 3.3 pounds. Both ultra-portables will be available in a few weeks. Pricing was not released on these models.
The Latitude E6400 and E6500 models, available now, are targeted as desktop replacements, and sport 14.1-inch and 15.4-inch screens. They start at $1,139 and $1,169, respectively. According to Dell, the Latitude E6400 ATG with a 14.1-inch screen is a "semi-rugged" laptop that meets the military 810F specifications for durability against dust, vibrations and humidity. The unit will be available next week for $2,399.
Additional models round out the launch in the mid-tier, with a balance of weight and performance. In all, Dell unveiled 10 new models.
Battery Life, Customization and Latitude ONThe company claims to have made a breakthrough in battery technology that enables the new Latitude series to perform for up to 19 hours on a single charge....
The clock is ticking on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission 's free wireless broadband proposal, with organizations on both sides of the debate stepping up their arguments.
Fire Eagle allows users to store their location data on the Web for access by any network service. For example, wireless users can upload their location and share it with family, friends or colleagues. It could make short work of finding someone in a crowded venue.
Yahoo calls Fire Eagle a "geo-aware" platform.
Users must sign up for the free service at fireeagle.yahoo.net to use applications. Once logged in they can choose varying levels of privacy -- from exact location to none, and customize who can access that location. Users can update information automatically through Web, mobile or desktop applications, or set the service to manual update only.
Yahoo seems adamant about keeping privacy and permission sacrosanct, perhaps in response to recent testimony before Congress about the use of private data by networking companies. Yahoo has testified before the subcommittee that oversees Web business.
Tracking Yourself
Applications on the platform include Ekit Travel Journal, which lets users share their travel itinerary, travel notes, and photos. If you're ever called on to testify about your whereabouts, dipity might help -- the service tracks your locations and makes a timeline of your comings and goings.
Dash updates your Fire Eagle location data by using in-car GPS systems. Perhaps this might be useful on long solo road trips to reassure the folks back home.
Brightkite is advertised as a social network, allowing you to log in and check who in your network is where and what's happening at your favorite places. Perhaps the most useful Fire Eagle application is Lightpole, which signals items of interest in your vicinity such as restaurants, clubs, theaters and the like. Metosphere does similar duty on...
M2Z Networks announced this week that it submitted evidence to the FCC confirming that there is no need for the FCC to conduct the fifth interference test before licensing the AWS-3 spectrum to be used for a free nationwide broadband service.
M2Z hopes to offer 384kbps free (and content filtered) to 95% of the country in ten years along with a $20-$30 3Mbps tier. It would use 20 MHz of spectrum, just above the cellular AWS band (between 2155-2175Mhz), which is currently unused. M2Z would use a TDD-based WiMAX system to homes, businesses and public service users.
M2Z rebuts the assertions of T-Mobile that it could interfere with their adjoining AWS cellular service. M2Z provided reference to two recent additional tests on the exact same interference scenarios (pdf) that were conducted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Kingdom’s spectrum regulator, Ofcom (pdf, below), “which directly contradict T-Mobile’s assertions”.
According to M2Z, the fact that T-Mobile and the other carriers are now seeking an additional fifth round of testing on mobile to mobile interference issues is further proof that these large phone companies are using “interference testing” as a veiled attempt to prevent nationwide broadband competition.
AT&T and T-Mobile own large chunks of AWS spectrum across the United States and have delayed the pending vote twice this summer, though all five FCC Commissioners had voted in September 2007 to complete this proceeding by an August 14, 2008 deadline.
Since May 22, 2008, the FCC has been mulling a plan that calls the long fallow 2155-2175 MHz band to be used for a nationwide lifeline broadband service. Legislation has now been introduced in both the House and Senate that would require the FCC to auction this band for free nationwide broadband service, showing Congressional support for FCC Chairman Martin’s “lifeline broadband” proposal (pdf).
Senator Wyden has joined his House colleagues by introducing a Senate bill, S 3420, calling for the prompt auction of the 2155-2180 MHz spectrum band (also known as AWS-3). The legislation directs the FCC to auction the AWS-3 spectrum within 6 months of the enactment of the legislation.
The FCC developed the plan based on proposals from several companies including M2Z Networks, Commnet Wireless, NextWave Broadband and others. But cellular carriers laid down the law earlier this summer and Martin removed the proposal from his agenda this June to “look into concerns raised by some wireless carriers.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the CTIA wrote in it’s filing (pdf):
“The proposal upends two decades of spectrum policy in favor of a specially tailored auction designed to advance the particular business model of a single company. Moreover, this business plan — including free broadband — has a track record of failure.”
“The chairman remains committed to advancing a proposal that will provide a broadband lifeline for Americans who currently do not have Internet access on what would be a portion of the band that would provide that service for free,” said an FCC spokesman. Martin insists the delay was to give “people a little more time to consider this,” and that he’s “still anxious” for the FCC to go forward with the auction.
Why not a free triple play? Like Freeview in the UK.
Television broadcasters are given our airwaves. Free. Like a Communist State.
The unlicensed Wi-Fi band also generates no revenue for The Treasury. But now Intel, the largest proponent of universal broadband, also has some skin in the game. That could make a strong consumer-oriented lobby for “free” broadband access less likely.
Related DailyWireless stories include; Free 2155-2175 MHz!, FCC: Free Broadband at 2155-2180 MHz, MXtv Makes Its Move, The Free Triple Play, How to Fix Muni Wi-Fi, Wavion Beamforms Backhaul, 
San Jose International: Free Wi-Fi, Bill to Free 2155-2180 Mhz, M2Z Vrs FCC, Freesat: Free Satellite HD in UK, Freeview Goes HD, UK: Free For All, BSkyB: Free Broadband, Murdoch to Offer Free Broadband?, Equal Access Happy Talk, Broadband Wireless — Hello Goodbye, Frontline: Rumble in the Jungle, The OTHER Public Safety Band, Public Service Moves to 800Mhz, FCC Hangs Up Free M2Z Service, 2.1GHz for MuniFi?, and M2Z: Free Internet Now!, Pipeline Wireless: We’re 3.65 GHz, FCC: Go For 3.65GHz, Airspan, Free 3.65GHz Mapping Service, Who the MuniFi MAN?, WiMAX: No Satellite Interference says WARC, Intel’s Rural Connectivity Platform, Airspan Gets FCC Nod for 3.65 GHz, Pipeline Wireless: We’re 3.65 GHz, FCC: Go For 3.65GHz, Airspan, Free 3.65GHz Mapping Service, Who the MuniFi MAN?, WiMAX: No Satellite Interference says WARC, Intel’s Rural Connectivity Platform, Airspan Gets FCC Nod for 3.65 GHz, 3.65 GHz Gets Real, FCC: Non-exclusive 3.6GHz Licensing and 3.65 GHz Gets Real.
Best Buy will be the first third-party retailer in the US to sell the iPhone. It will be available in some 970 stores plus an additional 18 dedicated Mobile locations on September 7 for the same $199 and $299 price points found elsewhere.
Stores like RadioShack also sell AT&T phones, but not the iPhone.
“Smart” phones like the iPhone are a big focus for Best Buy Mobile. Sales are up tenfold in two years, said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile.
Apple is expected to sell 4.47 million phones in its 4th quarter, says Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster. Fortune estimates that 3 million units were purchased worldwide during the iPhone 3G’s first 30 days on the market (although the chart on the right mistakenly shows 30 million).
Best Buy is also the only authorized third-party reseller of Sprint Nextel Corp.’s iPhone-like Samsung Instinct.
Apple launched the second generation of the iPhone on July 11. The two models cost $199 and $299 with two-year contracts.
Today Dell officially announced a family refresh of Dell's commercial notebook line, the new Dell Latitude E-series notebooks.
Chrysler will become the first car maker to offer Internet capability Aug. 25, when its parts division begins selling a Mopar car cellular/Wi-Fi hot spot and EV-DO cellular connection.
Called Uconnect Web, it will be sold and installed through Chrysler dealers. It is compatible with 2009 Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles as well as earlier models. Consumers can order new cars with the device or they can bring their car in to the dealer to have it outfitted with the $499 hot spot. Chrysler will not install the hot spots directly at the factory.
In addition to the $499 fee is a $35 to $50 installation fee, a $35 activation fee and a $29 monthly subscription fee for the EVDO service. Autonet Mobile already sells a portable version of the car hot spot to Avis Rent A Car that can be rented for $10.95/day.
Uconnect Web is hardwired to the car’s electrical system and the device is usually mounted in the trunk. An antenna is also mounted on the vehicle. It delivers download speeds from 400kbps to 800kbps with upload speeds averaging 400kbps. The Wi-Fi service operates within 100 feet of the car and the Wi-Fi connection is secured with WEP and other encryptions. The system can be converted to work on all cellular and WiMAX networks.
Last year Ford and Microsoft teamed up to offer Sync, an in-vehicle communications and entertainment system that lets drivers activate music using voice commands and have their text messages read aloud via text-to-speech technology. Ford has said it estimates that there will be one million Sync-equipped vehicles on the road by 2009.
Autonet also plans to offer a car hot spot for new cars next year through a partnership with GM’s Delphi. OnStar’s navigation and emergency roadside service costs between $17 and $70 per month.
When a driver presses the Red OnStar Emergency button or Blue OnStar button, current vehicle data and the user’s GPS location are immediately gathered, then sent to OnStar. OnStar Emergency calls are routed to the OnStar Center with highest priority.
In related news, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority now offers Internet access on 20 buses. The service is free - neither passengers nor taxpayers are paying for it. The company worked out a deal with AT&T that essentially trades advertising space for providing the Internet access.
Transit officials hope the service will make an impact with “choice riders,” Metro’s term for passengers who have the option of driving their car or riding the bus.
Oregon’s Westside Express Service (WES) will provide Wi-Fi for regional Commuter Rail, according to John Fall, Communications Coordinator for TriMet Community Affairs in Portland.
The $117.3 million commuter rail system will begin running in October or November, connecting the Beaverton Transit Center, on the West side of Portland with five commuter rail stations along the line in Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.
Autoweek has an interesting feature story, Under the Hood with Big Brother that details the perils of black box systems in cars, GPS guidance systems like OnStar and roadway wireless systems like the Intelligent Transportation System.
Related DailyWireless stories on transit connectivity include; Portland Commuter Rail Readies Wi-Fi, Chrysler Rolls Out U-connect , Ford Sync, Mobile Livecasting, Google Transit Maps + WiFi, Chrysler: Wi-Fi Car This Year, The Connected Bus, Hotspot for Bedouins, Chrysler Getting WiMAXed, Verizon Traffic Mapping , PePWave Mobility: Connectivity for Vehicles, Civic Booster, Broadband Wireless Modems, Kyocera KR2 Mobile Router, Gadgets That Listen, Analog Cellular to Shut Down, Microsoft Vrs OnStar and 3-D Traffic/Weather Maps.
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