17 posts tagged “web”
Dropped calls and choppy Web surfing on Apple's latest smartphone may stem from an Infineon chip. A fix is on the way
Complaints over dropped calls and choppy Web connections on Apple's iPhone 3G have sparked a wave of debate in the blogosphere over the root cause of the problems. Two well-placed sources tell BusinessWeek.com the glitches are related to a chip inside Apple's music-playing cell phone. The sources add that Apple (AAPL) plans to remedy the problems through a software upgrade rather than through a more disruptive step, such as a product recall.
The news reinforces analysis by Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities, who said in an Aug. 12 report that the problem involves a communications chip made by Munich-based Infineon Technologies (IFX). Faulty software on the chip causes problems when the iPhone needs to switch from wireless networks that allow for faster Web downloads to slower ones, the people say.
Apple: "No comment"
Users of the iPhone 3G complain they're unable to get the faster connections available on so-called 3G, or third-generation, wireless networks even in some areas where 3G networks are in place. Owners also lament frequent shifting between high-speed and slower-speed networks during calls and Web sessions. The handoffs sometimes result in dropped calls. The problem is affecting 2% to 3% of iPhone traffic, the people say. That compares with a dropped-call rate of around 1% for all traffic for AT&T (T), Apple's exclusive partner in the U.S. "This is a problem, but it's not a catastrophe," one of the sources says.
Still, it's causing enough disruption that the Internet is abuzz with complaints over the phone's performance and speculation over how much blame lies with Infineon's chips. Infineon spokesman Guenther Gaugler declines to comment on the chip's performance in the iPhone 3G, but says the chips haven't resulted in comparable problems in other phones, including those made by Samsung. "Our 3G chips are, for example, used in Samsung handsets and we are not aware of such problems there," Gaugler says.
Apple, which has refused to acknowledge there is a problem with the iPhone's performance, declined to comment for this story. AT&T issued a statement saying, "Overall, the new iPhone is performing just great on our 3G network."
Traffic Spikes
One source says the problem lies squarely with Infineon's technology, which is fairly new and untested in high volumes outside a lab setting. Not only is the iPhone shipping in much higher volumes than other handsets, it's also gobbling up far more 3G minutes as owners use it to surf the Web, watch YouTube (GOOG) videos, and utilize other bandwidth-hogging services.
As much as the chip may be the chief problem, glitches may also stem from Apple's software or the AT&T network. Part of the role of the Infineon chip is to check whether there's enough 3G bandwidth available in a given area. If 3G isn't available or there isn't enough bandwidth, the iPhone will be shifted to a slower network. One source says Apple programmed the Infineon chip to demand a more powerful 3G signal than the iPhone really requires. So if too many people try to make a call or go on the Internet in a given area, some of the devices will decide there's insufficient power and switch to the slower network—even if there is enough 3G bandwidth available.
According to this person, the problems are only occurring in areas of high iPhone density. These include the San Francisco Bay area, Boston, and certain overseas locales. The reason the problem has gotten worse in recent days is because of the steep increase in iPhone activations in these places. The more people who are trying to use a given piece of gear, the more likely they are to get bumped.
Yet another theory is that AT&T hasn't put in place sufficient 3G network equipment to handle the traffic spike in key areas, a charge AT&T insists is untrue.
Growing Pains
Whatever the cause, connection problems are a big disappointment for customers who bought the iPhone 3G precisely because of its promise of more reliable Net access. Apple's home page still advertises the device with the tagline "Twice as Fast. Half the Price." Now reports suggest that Apple customer service reps are telling consumers who are encountering problems to shut off the 3G feature. "I'm so sick of hearing people say 'turn off 3G,'" laments an iPhone 3G owner identified as jazzwill, whose remarks are among 926 replies to a post on Apple's Web site entitled "iPhone 3G Reception Problems? You're Not Alone." "Uh, why pay an extra $10 [for AT&T's iPhone plan] and get a new phone that is advertised to 'just work' then???…. I returned my iPhone 3G because the iPhone 3G stinks in my opinion. I went back to my original iPhone."
The iPhone 3G complaints coincide with dismay over another Apple product, a new online service called MobileMe, that has dealt a rare bruise to Apple's reputation for product reliability. Subscribers who pay the $99 annual MobileMe fee are supposed to have their e-mail, calendars, and other information synched between various devices. But for a few hours on Aug. 11, users were unable to get their e-mail on an iPhone, iPod touch, or on a desktop PC application.
Apple resolved that problem and got MobileMe back up and running. The iPhone networking problems could take a bit longer. Two sources say Apple will likely issue a software update by the end of September—if not by the end of this month—to resolve the issues. Apple and Infineon are currently testing the fix, which will be included in a broader update of the iPhone's software. iPhone owners will be prompted to install the update when they synch their iPhones to a PC, just as they have on many other occasions. In its statement, AT&T said, "We urge our customers to synch iPhone 3G to iTunes frequently to ensure they have the latest software updates."
Nomura's Windsor notes that the glitches are reminiscent of the problems carriers had with handsets from Nokia (NOK) and other manufacturers earlier in the decade when they were rolling out their 3G networks in Europe, adding that they may not have a lasting impact on Apple's reputation, especially if the company is able to avoid a recall. In other words, the iPhone may simply be suffering the growing pains common to cutting-edge technologies that are anything but common.
Burrows is a senior writer for BusinessWeek, based in Silicon Valley
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credit - http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080813_430402.htm
Links from Techmeme.com -
WildCowboy / MacRumors:
Associated Press:Magazine blames iPhone's design for 3G woes
Mossberg, Levy And Arrington Talk iPhone, Yahoo On Charlie Rose
Erick Schonfeld
10 comments »
Our own Michael Arrington joins Wired’s Steven Levy and the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg on last night’s Charlie Rose show
. Most of the discussion was on the iPhone 3G
and how Apple continues to turn the mobile world on its head. At the
end of the discussion the trio also talk about Yahoo’s future.
This is Mike’s third appearance on the show this year. See his March and May conversations with Rose as well.
credit -
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/7/23/2/a-discussion-about-the-iphone-3g
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Technology Guru Larry Magid Explores The Possibilities Of Free Or Cheap Web Radio Software
6SILICON VALLEY, Calif., July 14, 2008
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Highly anticipated Apple iPhone hits stores around the world.
Tips and tricks from Larry Magid on PCs, software, gadgets and more.
(CBS) The new Apple 3G iPhone has received a lot of attention, but the more important story isn't the new hardware, but Apple's application store and the many programs that run on the new phone.
Thanks to a few of those programs there's an even larger story - the iPhone may fundamentally change the way people listen to the radio when they're in their cars or otherwise on the go.
Two free applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and another program that costs only $4.99, make it possible to listen to live radio on the iPhone from anywhere, including a moving car.
Unlike those pre-TV days when families sat around a big radio console in the living room, a lot of people now listen to radio mainly when they're on the move. Internet radio has been around for more than a decade, car radios were introduced in the 1930's and portable transistor radios became available in the 1950s.
Until now, live radio pretty much meant listening to a broadcast station with transmitters relatively nearby. But with the iPhone you can listen to stations from around the world, including some that broadcast only on the Internet and don't even have transmitters.
Over time, this could be as disruptive to the radio broadcast industry as the Web has been to print. That's not to say that major broadcast organizations (including CBS, which owns CBSNews.com and for which I serve as technology consultant) can't survive in the age of mobile Internet radio, but it does mean they will face competition from new players, including startups operating from peoples' spare rooms.
There are at least three "live radio" software applications available, not only for the new iPhone, but for the older iPhone and the iPod Touch that have been updated with Apple's new 2.0 software (free for iPhone users and $10 for iPod Touch users). Two of the programs: AOL Radio and Pandora are free while Tuner costs $4.99.
AOL Radio "Powered by CBS Radio" allows you to listen to more than 150 CBS music, news, talk and sports stations across the United States, as well as customized stations created specifically for online listening. By default, it uses the iPhone or iPod Touch's location awareness capabilities to play stations in your area, but you can also use it for out-of-town stations.
Pandora doesn't carry broadcast stations but allows users to create their own music programming by selecting their favorite artists or genres. It's a very creative concept that can result in programming that is highly customized yet, unlike listening to your own MP3 files, still gives you the serendipity of not knowing which song will come next.
The other program, called Tuner, lets you select from thousands of Internet stations around world or type in the URL of any station that may not be included in its rather exhaustive list.
Assuming you have a good Internet connection, the sound quality from any of these programs is generally quite good.
With San Jose Mercury News technology reporter Troy Wolverton at the wheel, I plugged the iPhone into the auxiliary jack of his car radio while we drove around the San Jose, Calif. area listening to WCBS Newsradio from New York, a radio station from Kingston, Jamaica and a customized channel through Pandora.
Even at 66 miles an hour on U.S. Highway 101, the sound was better than what you'd expect from a clear FM signal. I also tuned into my local KCBS news station where the sound quality was definitely better than the station's terrestrial AM signal.
The iPhone isn't the first device to bring Internet radio to people on the go. There is streaming radio software for Windows Mobile, Palm and Blackberry, but they haven't received widespread recognition.
Given the iPhone's popularity and the fact that you can get these stations free with the AT&T data plan, I expect this to become one of the more popular uses for the iPhone, especially for people who commute by car. And, unless car radio manufacturers and automakers have their heads in the sand, I wouldn't be surprised to see similar technology built into car audio systems.
If this does catch on, it could be incredibly disruptive to both the terrestrial and the relatively new satellite radio industries. With the Internet, stations no longer need transmitters, satellites or hard-to-get-FCC licenses to broadcast to mobile listeners.
Startups can now compete with major broadcast companies. Of course, having a delivery vehicle doesn't mean you have a good product or the ability to market it well but, as we've discovered with blogs and podcasts, new media technologies do enable some creative new players to succeed while giving incumbent players - including CBS and other broadcasters - the opportunity to take advantage of new distribution systems.
Either way you look at it, the landscape will change.
Safari 3.1 Is Out, First to Support CSS Animations, Web Fonts, Multimedia HTML 5
Safari 3.1 is out now, and according to Apple is the first web browser to support the new video and audio tags in HTML 5, as well as CSS Web Fonts and CSS animations. Update: Testing the new features now (with video.) Impressions after the jump.
Safari
3.1 is out now, and according to Apple is the first web browser to
support the new video and audio tags in HTML 5, as well as CSS Web
Fonts and CSS animations. Update: Testing the new features now (with video.) Impressions after the jump.
First, it requires a restart (damnation) but it's worth it. So far, it seems faster loading pages than the previous versions. And the response in CSS heavy pages seems more fluid (see reported problems at the end.) We are trying now the new CSS animation, Web Fonts, and multimedia support in HTML 5.
HTML 5
The new HTML 5 video element works great, without a glitch, as the
video shows. A page encoded with the new video will show you the video
without any problem, like if it was a picture integrated in the page.
If you pass the cursor over it, it will show you overlaid controls in
the movie, and when you resize it using the + icon, it grows until it fill the full column, making all the other elements in the layout to move fluidly. You can try it here.
CSS Animations
They also work without problems, although I've yet to find a page to really put the whole spec through its paces.
Acid3 Test
Not that it means a lot in terms of real world browser performance but,
weirdly enough, Safari 3.1 only gets 74/100 here on the Acid 3 test.
The latest nightly built of WebKit apparently was getting 93/100 as of yesterday.
Other things
Benny and Wilson say that they are having problems using the shift key
in Gmail. Trying to type with the shift key pressed will change the
field focus for them. It works fine for me. If you have any problem or
test, please write in the comments.
More updates as we test these features.
Apple Releases Safari 3.1
The World's Fastest Browser Now on Mac and Windows
CUPERTINO, Calif., March 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today introduced Safari(TM) 3.1, the world's fastest web browser for Mac(R) and Windows PCs. Safari loads web pages 1.9 times faster than IE 7 and 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2. Safari also runs JavaScript up to six times faster than other browsers, and is the first browser to support the latest innovative web standards needed to deliver the next generation of highly interactive Web 2.0 experiences*. Safari 3.1 is available immediately as a free download at http://www.apple.com/safari for both Mac OS(R) X and Windows.
"Safari 3.1 for Mac and Windows is blazingly fast, easy to use and features an elegant user interface," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "And best of all, Safari supports the latest audio, video and animation standards for an industry-leading Web 2.0 experience."
The incredible performance of Safari, combined with its elegant user interface, lets users spend more time surfing the web and less time waiting for pages to load. Safari features an intuitive browsing experience with drag-and-drop bookmarks, easy-to-organize tabs, an integrated Find that shows the number of matches in a page and a built-in RSS reader to quickly scan the latest news and information.Safari 3.1 is the first browser to support the new video and audio tags in HTML 5 and the first to support CSS Animations. Safari also supports CSS Web Fonts, giving designers limitless choices of fonts to create stunning new web sites.
Pricing & Availability
Safari 3.1 is available immediately as a free download at http://www.apple.com/safari for both Mac OS X and Windows users. Safari software updates are delivered seamlessly through Apple's Software Update application, which automatically checks for updates.
Safari 3.1 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard(R) or Mac OS X Tiger(R) version 10.4.11, a minimum of 256MB of memory and is designed to run on any Intel-based Mac or a Mac with a PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor and built-in FireWire(R). Safari 3.1 for Windows requires Windows XP or Windows Vista, a minimum of 256MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor.
Twiddla takes home SXSW award despite sluggish performance
Collaborative whiteboarding applications can be handy tools for small groups looking to do some brainstorming despite geographical displacement. Meet Twiddla, a free tool that lets you mark up media and live Web sites, or simply organize ideas together on a virtual whiteboard. It also tacks on live communication with text chat and free VoIP conference calling that doesn't require additional plug-ins or software.
The application won an award for technical achievement at last night's SXSW Interactive Web Awards. While technologically fantastic, in my testing I ran up against some noticeable speed and local resource problems. At times I found the application to be nearly unusable despite its simple interface and snappy menus. At other times it was incredibly responsive.
In any case, Twiddla's packing a lot of features that might attract users of premium paid collaborative services such as ConceptShare and Octopz who are seeking a very simple way to get feedback on Web design or photography. It could also easily replace WebEx for a large number of people who use the tool simply for its text chat and shared work space.
One of Twiddla's killer applications is the built-in screenshot tool. It will snap the current iteration of the whiteboard and save it into both your saved media folder and the meeting's history archive. For photo or Web design consulting, this gives you the option of coming back to a work space and editing content asynchronously.
I'm holding off on giving Twiddla a thumbs up for the time being. It simply didn't perform as well as I think it should to make me ditch some of the alternatives. However, I'm happy to see some little guys come up and show WebEx and others like the recently Google-acquired Marratech what can be done on the user interface side to make these tools simple and attractive.
Read Web pages at the same time with others, and make live markups to a site on the fly. You can also chat live with others either via text or VoIP conference calling.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0:
Marc Canter / Marc's Voice:Opt-in controls for allowing your info to be Exported
Get Hotmail on your iPhone
Newsflash:
People still use Microsoft’s relatively-unimpressive Hotmail email
service. And if you’re a Hotmail user and sport an iPhone, you may have
run into difficulties checking your Hotmail account on the
phone via Mail. But if you’re thoroughly entrenched and have hundreds
of contacts, switching to a new, iPhone-friendly email address may not
be an option.
Fortunately for you, our cohorts at Mac OS X Hints have your back, detailing steps that will allow you to use Gmail to access and send Hotmail emails on the iPhone. (You’ll also be able to use these steps to similarly set-up Hotmail-sending-and-receiving in Apple Mail.)
You’ll need a Gmail address with IMAP enabled, and you’ll have to set up your Hotmail account to forward emails to that Gmail address. Tweak a few preferences in Gmail, and set up the account on your iPhone using the recommended settings on Mac OS X Hints.
If you follow the instructions carefully, you’ll be able to use Gmail to view and send Hotmail emails on your iPhone, without ever having to log into Hotmail again (hooray!).
Category: Tips & Troubleshooting
The Google Algorithm Is Changing
Duncan Riley
27 comments »
Google Operating System points out something interesting in Google’s algorithm recently: a preference in favoring recent content.
The example provided would seem to favor the conclusion; TCP/IP’s anniversary today has resulted in Google preferencing recent posts, including from Digg, over informative articles related to the search term such as Wikipedia who would have normally had the top or near to the top position.
Indexing recent posts has been a strength for Google, to the point that at least for areas like Blog Search they’ve become the defacto standard as others such as Technorati have struggled to keep up. That Google would preference recent posts in its search results without the usual incoming authority links throws out the rules we’ve always known with Google, and I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. It would depend a lot on the results, but it would limit attempts to game Google results through incoming links. Perhaps it’s the first step towards Google embracing Web 3.0 with semantic search that learns as it goes, constantly updating its results to suit the user at the time they are searching, complete with contextual awareness as well.
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