If you’re been waiting for an excuse to use that extra $499.00 you’ve got burning a hole in your wallet, Apple may have just given you one. Today, the company announced, via their website, that it will begin shipping its brand new tablet device, the iPad, on April 3rd and will begin taking pre-orders on March 12th.

This is great news for those of you who want to take your eBook reading to the next level and also for people who never jumped on the Kindle bandwagon. It’s also great news for those of you looking for a super-sized iPhone that will run all those cool apps without having to agree to a lengthy contract with AT&T. Although, if you do want to have such a contract (and 3G wireless), the iPad with 3G will be available later in April, complete with said AT&T contract.

Even though I’ve pointed out a few things I feel the iPad is missing (although some, like the camera, may actually be there after all) I still feel there’s some merit to the device. I would be even more excited if I didn’t already have a Kindle, which I feel, as a “single use” device, is actually better for reading books than the iPad will be.

Still, the iPad definitely has a lot of possibilities and I look forward to exploring those come April 3rd. Expect a full review of the iPad once I get my hands on one. Until then, if this device is truly for you, better start saving those pennies because April 3rd isn’t that far away.

If you’ve never been to Austin, TX during South by Southwest (SXSW), let me assure you AT&T’s network pretty much sucks during the fest. Sure, it has something to do with the sheer number of users concentrated all in one place but still, that doesn’t make it any better. So, to prevent a repeat of last years’s problems (To put it mildly) AT&T is going overboard to ensure a similar wireless network debacle doesn’t happen again this year.

To avoid a second such disaster, AT&T is pulling out all the stops (Well, most of them anyway) and bringing in a lot of additional equipment for the SXSW conference including:

• Bringing in three temporary cell sites that are positioned in areas expected to see high traffic.

• Installing a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at the Austin Convention Center. The DAS is comprised of 50 antenna nodes that provide the equivalent coverage of eight cell sites.

• Improving the cell sites in the surrounding area by utilizing 30MHz of spectrum for 3G instead of the standard 10MHz and upgrading the system to include the 850MHz band and HSPA.

• Improving the backhaul by beefing up the fiber optic connections that serve the eight cell sites of the DAS and the three temporary sites.

These all seems like great steps in the right direction for the company but still, you have to wonder if it will be enough. Even with AT&T’s recent victory in a PC World survey of network performance, many of us who use the network every day haven’t really seen much of a difference. It still kinda sucks.

When you’ve got thousands of power users with iPhones all in one square mile and all trying to use the network at the same time, will it be able to handle the load or will it fail once again? I guess we’ll find out next week. Any bets?

Seeing as how I use AT&T daily in Los Angeles and find the 3G service to be spotty and occasionally non-existant, I have a bit of a hard time believing that AT&T’s 3G network speed is actually the fastest. However, based on a recent study conducted by PC World, that seems to be the case.

The study, a collaboration between PC World and wireless analysis firm Novarum, took place from December 2009 to January 2010, and compares the four major U.S. wireless carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile) in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle on both mobile phones and laptop data cards

Highlights of the study include:

• AT&T: average download speed 1410 Kbps, average upload speed 773 Kbps

• Sprint: average download speed 795 Kbps, average upload speed 396 Kbps

• T-Mobile: average download speed 868 Kbps, average upload speed 311 Kbps

• Verizon: average download speed 877 Kbps, average upload speed 434 Kbps

Continue Reading →

Now that I’ve had a chance to think about it and perhaps Steve Jobs’ “reality distortion field” has worn off a bit, there are some things about the iPad I don’t like or wish had been, or hadn’t been, included in the new device. On the surface, the iPad seems like a great device and one that I will most likely get. But today’s announcement still left me wondering about a few things.

And here they are:

No camera – For a device like this it would make sense to have a video camera for video conferencing and to take pictures and video, much like the iPhone 3GS. If this device is supposed to be some sort of laptop replacement, it should have a camera. The deliberate omission of a camera smells like an obvious ploy by Apple to not cannibalize sales of the iPhone and iPod.

No Flash – Say what you will about Adobe’s Flash but for the full Internet browsing experience you still need to have Flash. Sure, the iPhone doesn’t have it but if this is supposed to be a larger, better device that can replace my 13″ MacBook, it should have Flash.

Navigating to web pages and seeing those black rectangles where video should be isn’t the fantastic experience Apple makes it out to be. It’s just bad and seriously undermines the credibility of Apple’s mobile web browser.

Storage – I realize that Apple probably isn’t positioning the iPad as a complete laptop replacement but it would still be nice to have more storage than the maximum of 64GB. Of course, having more storage would probably mean that battery life would suffer or the device would be more expensive but still, video files are usually pretty large and I’ve also got a lot of music and other files, plus applications and games, so larger storage options would be great.

Continue Reading →

According to the highly informed Boy Genius, Verizon is at it again with the latest version of its Droid and Droid Eris promotions. This time, as with previous promotions, if you are looking to grab a DROID and/or a DROID Eris for you and someone you love (or two for yourself, why not?), you still have until Christmas Eve to make this holiday purchase.

Starting today and extended until December 24th, Verizon Wireless is offering the DROID Eris as part of its popular “Buy One, Get One Free” promotion. Just like with previous promotions, if you buy a DROID or a DROID Eris, you are eligible to receive a DROID Eris for free. Of course, a new two year customer agreement for each new piece of smartphone goodness is required. You didn’t think you were going to get off that easy, did you?

We’re still evaluating our Motorola DROID here at The Flickcast test kitchens and its pretty darn cool. Still, as much as we hate to admit it, we kinda love our iPhones a little more so far. Although, with the state of AT&T’s network and Fake Steve Jobs’ “Operation Chokehold” going down this Friday, Verizon is looking better and better all the time.

Most people who love a particular phone but are forced to use AT&T know that their network performance can sometimes leave something to be desired. Yes iPhone owners, I’m talking to you. Poor network performance, inability to use 3G data and the ever-present dropped and failed calls are pretty consistent issues when using AT&T — at least in many areas.

But now it seems the network is listening and is going to try and do something about it. No, they are not introducing a radical improvement to their network or anything like that. Instead, they’ve rolled out a tool for the iPhone that will allow users to report any failure to their service. This application, called Mark the Spot, uses geo-location to pinpoint your iPhone’s location and then asks the user to identify the type of problem they are experiencing.

Supposedly this data will be used by the carrier to help pinpoint trouble spots that they can then take steps to improve. While I would prefer an actual improvement in network performance, i guess this is a step in the right direction. This application is now available in the iTunes store so go it it.

I wonder if they’ll get very many reports?

Things are starting to get a bit heated between everyone’s favorite fruit-flavored technology company, Apple, and what is pretty much acknowledged as the best wireless network, Verizon. Recently, Apple filed a lawsuit against rival Verizon for, among other things, its use of the “There’s an app for that” slogan during its commercials.

In response, Verizon dropped a few new holiday-themed ads poking fun at Apple’s iPhone and sending it to the classic “Island of Misfit Toys” where unwanted presents go do die. With all the back-and-forth, I certainly hope this doesn’t stop the iPhone from coming to Verizon’s network sometime while I’m still young enough to read the screen.

With rumors circulating that this blessed event may happen sometime in 2010, I guess there’s still a bit of time for Apple and Verizon to get all this snark out of their systems. At least I hope so. Check out the very amusing commercial after the break.

Continue Reading →

According to a report over at YouTube, uploads to the video-sharing site have jumped 1700% in the last six months. After last Friday’s launch of the new video capable iPhone 3GS, that growth sped up even further — to 400% growth per day. Of course, with this latest jump in network activity, you have to wonder how AT&T’s network is handling the load, given its relatively well-known issues.

According to DSL Reports, the AT&T network is doing just fine, thank you. “Upload has been a strength of our network for a while now with HSUPA,” said AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom in the article. HSUPA boosted the upstream capability of the company’s wireless network to between 500kbps and 800kbps, and the upgrades were all-but completed by Spring of 2008.

Bloom continued: “Things like adding 2100 cell sites around the country, adding improved backhaul to thousands of other sites, upgrading to HSPA 7.2 (7.2Mbps downstream) beginning later this year and concluding in 2011, and rolling out 850 (Mhz) to improve overall and in-building coverage”

So, there you have it. More users, more bandwidth being used and no problems. Sure. So why has MMS been delayed until “Summer”?

In case you’ve been away, unable to get on the Internet or watch tv, Apple released an update to its flagship smartphone on Friday and more people decided to get one than “those in the know” originally thought. According to our favorite Apple site TUAW, sales of the iPhone 3GS may exceed the 500 K units as predicted by tech pundit Gene Munster, senior analyst at Piper Jaffray.

His research firm had originally predicted the 500 K number of units sold this weekend but now believes that figure is “conservative” based on early results. Between AT&T’s citing of ‘hundreds of thousands’ of pre-orders for the device, and Britain’s O2 announcing that first-day sales for the 3GS went past the totals for the 3G last year, it’s possible that the 3G S could meet or exceed the magic million units sold mark.

Of course, as in years past, AT&T wasn’t able to handle the number of users trying to activate their new iPhones all at the same time, which triggered delays for many users. Many new buyers ended up waiting several hours for activations to complete or were forced to call AT&T customer service and have their activations pushed through by a rep.

In recognition of the aggravation and inconvenience, Apple has begun emailing affected users with the offer of a $30 iTunes credit to be delivered Monday morning. So, if you ended up having to wait several hours for your iPhone 3G S to be activated, you may be getting something from Apple in your email pretty soon.

Updated: Well, it turns out Munster was way off. How much? Well, according to a press release issued by Apple, sales of the new iPhone 3GS topped one million units over the weekend, double what Munster predicted.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, downloads of Apple’s new 3.0 OS for the iPhone and iPod Touch exceeded six million and the press release even got a quote from Steve Jobs himself, further fueling speculation that Jobs is on the mend and returning to work later this year. Not bad for a weekend.

According to our pals over at TUAW, AT&T and Apple are trying desperately to avoid the problems they’ve had during the last two iPhone launches. From long lines to insufficient stock to activation issues, getting an iPhone on the previous two launch days was a bit of a pain for many potential users. So, this time around, how are AT&T and Apple trying to help everyone out and hopefully prevent, or at least minimize, these problems?

Well, according to TUAW, they’ve got a plan. To help, AT&T and Apple stores will open early on June 19th. Specifically, many Apple stores will open at 8AM and AT&T company-owned stores will open at 7AM. Not only that, both AT&T and Apple are offering the opportunity to pre-order the device so you don’t have to wait in line and instead, have your shiny new iPhone 3G S shipped to you.

For more on what to expect from AT&T on iPhone 3G S launch day, check out Seth’s video after the jump.

Continue Reading →