Carriers block tethering
As of Monday Verizon is blocking all tether apps in the Android Marketplace. You can still search for the apps but trying to install them is impossible. While you can sideload the apps on to your phone at some point the carriers will move into other ways to stop tethering. The problem is it this is only the beginning of this fight. The carriers will keep pushing people for tether plans on their networks.
What I see is that there is no difference if you surf the web on your phone or share your connection with the laptop. The same bytes are sent to both devices. On the mobile side you used have to deal with mobile browsers that displayed a phone ready version of a website. Now the smart phones are able to display the same website you get on your computer. With Firefox Mobile you can change your user agent to be one of several different ones including masking it as a desktop browser.
The web on your smartphone is now no different than the web on your desktop. The cell carriers what you to think there is a difference but there isn’t. People who know this are confused on why there is an extra $20 fee to tether their laptop. The fee is another way that the carriers get more money from their subscribers. Now with the 4G rollout starting they will look to add even more fees to access faster speeds.l Hopefully one day there will be an end to the extra fees for the cell carriers.
Honeycomb getting locked away
For the time being Google is locking away the Honeycomb source code and keeping it away from the public. The only way to get access to the code is to a tablet OEM or a developer. You can’t be just any developer you have to be a specific developer that Google trust with this code. Their main reason for this is that don’t want Honeycomb to be put on phones since it wasn’t designed for that. They want it restricted to tablets only.
Now that seems like a good idea in an idealized world. Unfortunately for Google we don’t live in that world. There are hackers out there that enjoy stripping the code out of tablets and will try to get it to run on smart phones. That is there hobby and it will be done at some point. It probably won’t run correctly or very well at first but over time it will be running on a phone. I know this because they are communities that work to do this. In fact when I had a Windows Mobile phone I was using roms that were not made for it’s hardware but worked. I currently see this going on in the Android space.
Locking away “Open Source” code is bad. This is not a way to help your tablets become a mature product in the market. In the end this will hold up adaptation because instead of being the “Open Source” Android will now be no different than iOS regarding there OS code.
The Fragmentation Discussion
Fragmentation is all around us is ways that we never realize. You own one particular brand of car and a new version of that comes out. That is fragmentation. Most of the time this happens and we don’t hear any complaining about how product X and product Y are fragmenting a certain industry, well unless your are in the technology field.
When people talk about fragmenting they usually refer to the Android OS for smartphones. Now depending on who you talk to either the Android OS is so fragmented that it is just a matter of time before people give up on it or fragmentation is no big deal. The problem is that Phone makers are able to choose which version of Android to place on phones. That is the bad part of this it allows some outdated version to be released side by side with newer versions. The problem with this is that unless the phone makers release the software updates you are stuck at your Android version.
Now this wouldn’t be a big deal except that upgrading is expensive and you sign a contract when you get your cell phone for typically two years. This means that your phone could be behind on software updates for the whole time you are on contract, but that may even apply to newer Android versions also. Look at the Galaxy S from Samsung it is on Android 2.1 and it’s 2.2 update is not being released in the US as of right now due to disputes between Samsung and the mobile network carriers (AT&T, Verizon, & T-Mobile). The exact details about what the dispute is over is hard to pin down, but the most common idea is Samsung wants to charge for the update.
The fragmentation for Android also cause it to have issues with it’s apps on the marketplace. Some apps can only run in 2.1 or later and others can can run on 1.6 or newer. Depending on what the phone makers want to do you may end up with a 1.6 version of android on that new smart phone and you won’t be able to upgrade to a newer version. The version controls is resting on phone manufacturers rather then Google. The real fragmentation is from the phone makers and carriers.
Opt Out is the new Opt In
CPNI Notice sent by mail
Facebook is quickly becoming the defacto way to do business with your personal information. When Facebook rolled out places everyone was opted in automatically. You had to change your privacy settings to be opted out of the program. The was mass outrage over this. Every time Facebook makes any settings changes for privacy it is in opt out instead of opt in. So with places you would have to say “No Thanks” to places to not participate instead of saying “Sign me up.”
Using this model to deal with your customers privacy concerns is downright bad. I was shocked when Verizon sent me this packet about my privacy. After I read it I was even more shocked that I had to opt out of this information sharing between Verizon and third parties. Basically you have 45 days to tell Verizon you don’t want them to share your information otherwise you give them permission by doing nothing.
I think this is the wrong way to do business. Facebook’s tactics of having you to opt out of their added “features” should not be moving into other companies. Once down that path there is no turning back. If I decide that I want to share my information that is for me to decide and not some company to make that call.
Verizon wants you to share your information with their parent companies, affiliates, and agents. Now what kind of information are they looking to share you may ask. They want to share your Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). CPNIS as quote from the mailing is:
Services purchased(including specific calls you make and receive), related local and toll billing information and the type, destination, technical configuration, location and amount of use of purchased services.
Verizon wants to share you you call and who calls you along with the 800 numbers you contact to third parties to “better serve our telecommunication needs.” TO that I said no way and took my self off this information sharing.
To opt out of CPNI sharing call Verizon at 1-800-333-9956 and follow the recorded prompts. All told it took less than 5 mins to Opt out of this sharing.
The Disappearing SMS Conundrum
I am a digital packrat, there is no way around it. I have saved every text message I sent and received since I got my new smartphone, The Droid Incredible, in May of this year. That is almost 6 months, for me that is well over several thousand text messages. I say this to set up how completely devastating it was to me yesterday. It was like any normal day at work and near the end of the day I was finishing some projects up and texting with a person about some things. When I got a response back from a message I went to check it out. I opened my messaging app and there was no messages at all, nothing was in there. I felt a great disturbance in the force. I started to panic a bit figuring that maybe it was the phone glitched on me.
I rebooted.
“It probably just needs a reboot as the OS needs to refresh itself to get the messages back” I said to myself.
I was trying to reassure the panicked part of me freaking out that I lost SOOOOO many text messages. I watched as the phone booted up, this had to be the longest boot up I had ever witnessed. When everything loaded I went to my messaging widget.
Nothing. I open it up, I see a blank screen. I go to the android app marketplace and downloaded handcent. No messages at all. Nothing, nada, empty. I am not sure why I feel sad, but I did. On my previous HTC phone I was flashing a new rom and wiping text message out, this time it felt different. I checked the Application info in the Settings menu. There is 820kb of data it is taking up. Do I delete the data and just toss the towel in or do I research this problem more.
I do some research and find this seems to be a problem in at least several cases. I think the data is still on the phone and I will look for was to access it, but for now I have lost a lot of text messages I wanted to keep and I blame HTC and Verizon for this.
WWDC – Predicting the future
Tomorrow Apple will unveil the new iPhone that has been leaked already. We already know what iPhone OS 4.0 will do and look like. The only real questions are what will be the major announcements for the new iPhone based on the leaked models. Here are my four predictions.
1) 32GB is the new 16GB – The base model at $199 will carry a 32GB size and there will be a 64GB model at $299. This seems to follow the trend of the last couple of years where the previous iPhone’s largest capacity is the new entry level size.
2) Video chat for a price – AT&T will charge a price for video chat. It’ll be an extra $15 a month. This will be another chance for AT&T to make money on iPhone users consider that AT&T has new data plans to phase customers into. Why not make an unlimited video chat charge also. This will be available in about 4 months after launch on AT&T and at launch for the rest of the world.
3) iPhone ?? – The name of the iPhone will be interesting, but I will have it pegged as iPhone HD. Anything else with 4 in the name doesn’t make sense marketing wise because 4G cell tech is not out in wide use and the phone doesn’t have any. Although this is Apple so anything can happen.
4) Other networks – There will be no mention of other networks at today’s conference. Apple will remain committed to AT&T. If apple announces it’s going to another network it will be a long shot or the best kept secret of the new iPhone. Verizon and Sprint may say they want it on their networks, but there is not proof a CDMA version exists.
