LTE Tablets Comig - Great But What About the Battery Life?

LTE tablets are the future and no one is disputing this fact.  Near-term, is LTE just a marketing gimmick the way Verizon Wireless marketed the Thunderbolt as being the first LTE device that resulted in a lot of complaints about coverage and battery life?

That being said, I wonder what the first LTE tablets will be come when it comes to battery life?  We won't have to wait long as VZW and Samsung are able to until the LTE Galaxy tablet.

If they don't match up to rivals like the iPad, well, you know how the story will end.

Source:  MobileTopSoft.

Apple's 15" Macbook With Air-Thinness In the Works - Obviously

Boy Genius Report via Macumors is reporting that Apple is working on a 15" Macbook that may or may not be a part of the Air line up.  

Obviously, no one should be surprised by this at all.  Given Apple's propensity to shake things up from time to time, I reckon an 17" version was probably worked on as well.  Whether we'll see them released into the market is anyone's guess.  Macrumors suggests that Apple is in the late stages of development.  

My curiosity lies on just how much this 15" Air will hold up against the 15" Macbook Pro.  Performance, weight, battery life, and whether it'll still have a dedicated GPU all comes to mind.  And ultimately, how much  

It is conceivable that by releasing a 15" Macbook Air, Apple is finally getting rid of internal optical drives from the entire line of Macbooks.  And we might see the 17" version as well.  What does that mean is that mobile warriors maybe able to carry around their Macs that are a couple of pounds lighter.  

It also means some savings for Apple if there is no optical drive.  Anyone who needs a DVD burner can still buy the Superdrive.  

Now, if Apple can push the battery life back up closer to ten hours, I'm sold on these 15" and 17" Macbook Airs.

iPod touch 3G Pictured or Possible New Pre-Paid iOS Device

Either it's a mistake on the part of the art department or we can really be seeing and iPod touch with 3G connectivity coming from Apple.

What is interesting is that if this was a mistake, it was one made deliverately to take out whether the data plan comes from ATT or Verizon Wireless.

Now, Cult of Mac, site that spotted this interesting info, is erring on the side of caution here but I think there could be something to this.  

If you compare the touch picture with those of the iPhone pics on Apple's site and the screen of your iPhone, you'll will see that any information about the carrier was taken out by Apple online - after all, Apple doesn't want to favor one carrier over another now that it has two in the US.  

Furthermore, I like to throw this in.  Is this new iPod touch a pre-paid iPhone rather than a new iPdo touch with 3G capability?

I believe it's time that Apple really rearrange the chairs on the mobile deck.  In fact, I like to see Apple throw those chairs overboard and start building something new for the smartphone market.  Abandon traditional telephony and go with a VOIP plan based on FaceTime with just voice.

A VOIP solution from Apple would just blow the roof off the wireless market and put the market into a frenzy.

Kindle Tablet: Amazon Is Making Its Upcoming Tablet With An Attractive Price and Market It as "Good Enough"

Our bank accounts are limited.  Well, maybe some of yours are not but mine definition has its limits.  Small limits.  Therefore, you can understand that pricing plays a big role in a vast major of my purchases?  

Therefore, it is not surprising that in a survey by Retrevo, nearly 50% of respondents attach price as a major factor regarding their tablet purchases.  In the same survey, 55% of the respondents will purchase a tablet from Amazon with the nearest competitors coming in at 31% for both Motorola and HP.  

Taking both into consider, and the fact that the Kindle tablet will sport a LCD screen coming in at 9" rather than the customary 10" its competitors like the iPad, Touchpad, and Xoom, and the report that it will have a more rudimentary two-finger touch support than more advanced touch features more capable in competing devices, Amazon could be going for the lower price entry with a  good enough product this go around

If Amazon can come out with a single-core or a lower-end dual-core powering a 9" LCD running a modified Android from Google with its own ecosystem, it could be just "good enough" for a large segment of the mobile warriors.  It's possible for Amazon to price it $400 and possible $300 if it it subsidized by a 3rd party.  There are also reports that the tablet will not have any extra features like cameras.  

What this will do to the competition is obvious.  And should the Kindle tablet take off, which I believe it will, Amazon can upgrade the following with additional features once they are cheap enough to do so without losing its margins.  At the same time, don't think that Amazon isn't above selling these tablets at near cost if it thinks it'll help gain a marketshare away from the iPad.

It's competition grand?

Source: Business Insider.

RIM CEOs Not Among 2,000 RIM Employees Being Let Go

I don't know if the two RIM CEOs work for a $1 like Steve Jobs but I do know that they are not among the 2K+ RIM employees that will soon be getting their walking papers.  And as for being the two guys that make RIM such a dominant force in mobile enterprise communication, they are also the forces behind what has happened to RIM to this date.  To be fair, RIM is still growing and is still a cash cow but growth as slowed as Apple attempts to usurp RIM's enterprise mantle.

So, the fact that the two CEOs who failed to recognize the fast changing pace of the smartphone and tablet market will continue to take the company in the same direct they've been going the last couple of years is just how life is.  Ten years from now, the ideal situation would be that blogs would talk about how back in 2011, there was so much pressure to remove them from their posts as CEOs and had the company caved, RIM would not be the power house it will be in 2021.

Somehow, I don't think that will happen.  I just hope that RIM will still be around in one form or another ten years from now, still profitable to a degree, and that we will not be lamenting what a mistake it was to keep those two in place.

Note:  One thing companies have to learn from Apple regarding dark times is that it has to assess its products, do a truly soul-searching, and innovate its way out of the problem.  Cutting 2,000 jobs doesn't seem like the way to do it.  

Google Did Not Do "What Was Necessary" and Now Tries To Play Victim

I think patent trolls are bad things for the tech market or any market for that matter.  They represents the worst elements of the system. And the system needs to be reformed.  But at the same thing, reformation of the patent system does to negate one thing:  the need to have patents or the need to innovate.

I fault Google for not protecting Android and not having the leadership to foresee a future in which rivals will not be willing to allow Android device makers to simply usurp the technology they developed by competitors.  

In an interview with Techcrunch, Kent Walker, Google's General Counsel, seems to be suggesting as much.  On top of that, I suggest that Google fire Walker for his ineptitude.  It would have been under his leadership to secure the Nortel patents and he failed to do that.  I see this interview as his attempt to cover his mistakes.

Having lost the bidding with to rivals, he now consider patents to be "government-granted monopolies".  Well, duh.  Then having no patents to back up their own OS, he goes on to suggest that some patents should not be valid without providing specifics.  But Walker has to understand that the Android lawsuits are not about patent trolls, especially in the case of Microsoft.  If he does think the Microsoft situation and patent trolls are the same thing, then it underscores my earlier point:  Larry Page, get rid of this guy now!

Google's history regarding other's intellectual properties and patents are clear.  You'll have to decide which side you come down on and make an honest assessment.  If something path to your final product or process is blocked by a patent, you have one of two choices.  Fight to invalidate it or innovate around it.  

At the moment, Google has done neither and outside of a few sorts, Google's partners could be feeling pretty sore about the whole situation.  Now, if Google decides to foot some of the payments and legal fees....

Mozilla - Firefox To Become Mobile OS

"Boot to Gecko" is Mozilla's answer to Chrome OS and new entry into the mobile market.  And it will not be for netbooks but also tablets and phones.  And it seems like Mozilla is taking aim directly at Google and trying to do for the mobile in ways that Android has failed to do.  Failed in what ways depends on your perspective.

Mozilla promises real-time openness without Google's invisible hands and the times when Google controls things with Android that is not entirely transparent.  In essence, The Firefox OS or whatever it'll be called will be truly open in ways that Android is not.

Now, you've noticed that I don't want to call this exciting new project by its current given name because it is pretty lame.  "Boot to Gecko"?  Please, Mozilla.  I think Firefox OS sounds better, don't you think?

And yes, this is very exciting news if Mozilla can truly come through.  We need more competitors in the mobile market than not.  One thing I think Mozilla has to be conscious of is that it will avoid stepping on the toes of the current incumbent OS patent-wise.  

The ultimate goal is "breaking the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world".  I know that sounds good.  Let's see it happen.

Does it really have a chance to compete against Google's Chrome and Android?  There could be a core group of mobile warriors, "purists" I like to call them, who are likely going to endorse this Firefox OS wholeheartedly.  I wish them the best.  Again, there is no words on how to get around current patent restrictions, the overwhelming lead that Android and iOS have, or if Mozilla has any heavy weight tech companies supporting it.

Still, we should be watching this closely.  Maybe it might not work to the extent we hope but it could at least keep Google more honest with Chrome OS and Android, both of which are neither open and has become more and more proprietary with each release

Source:  CNet.