Forget Day-Long Battery Life, I Want Mobile Devices To Last Months

Today, smartphone batteries are atrocious.  We’re lucky if we can make it half a day without charging up.  So, those con numbers about standby time, talk-times, and hours of use really doesn’t stand up in real world use.  A couple of months back, Intel was talking about all day battery life from devices running on their chips.  It’s likely they’re parsing between light use like checking e-mails, texting, taking a couple of pics and watching some Youtube video.

Now, look at your own use.  You’re probably more a moderate user.  And if you examine how you use your Android or iPhone from when you first go it to today (maybe months or years), you’ll realize that you’ve come to rely on your smartphone a lot more than when you first started using it.

Chances are, your Android LTE device will be running on fumes by late afternoon.  You’re lucky if you can get to an outlet in time or you’re just heading home.  What happens if you’re got a longer work day or are heading out to dinner and a movie?  You’re screwed in what it is.

What’s the solution?  Well, as much as I like the specs race (who doesn’t), maybe it’s time to think about what mobile really is.  And there has to be a balance between performance of the hardware, what we can do with it, and how long we can use devices for.

I keep coming back to my calculators and I’ve gone through many of them over the years.  If it wasn’t for the HP graphing devices (the first mobile devices as far as I’m concerned), it was those Casio calculators that you can use in trig and geometry classes that run on the ambient light in the classroom.  Or even my simple no-name calculator from Office Depot.  That also runs on a small solar cell.

And they run forever.  Even battery ones we use in the offices.  I don’t recall changing batteries on those things yet.

That’s the kind of battery life I want.  As far as I’m concerned, that should be where the next mobile revolution should come from.  I want something that runs on one charge for days.  No scratch that.  I want them running on one charge for weeks if not months.

Social Weapon of Choice For Political Operatives: Twitter

Twitter has grown up.  Not long ago, it was a way to tell your friends when you were going to the bathroom and what you were thinking while you sat on the toilet.  Then it became instrumental in helping people of North Africa get rid of a couple of dictators.  And now, Twitter is the weapon of choice for political machines, specifically, the operatives who are looking to slash their way socially to get their messages and mud across.

Here is a prime example.  In an exchange between David Axelrod (Twitter), the man who is widely credited by the media for getting then Senator Barack Obama into the White House (I know Oprah would beg to differ) and Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom (Twitter), the two got personal and traded jabs.

There more of this at the Washington Post piece.  Something about dogs mixed in with dogs and debates.  It's really quite interesting because, even now, Twitter is a vehicle for influencing the greater voting public because the media and the campaigns are picking up on this.

I'm considering creating just a separate Twitter account just to aggregate these political tweets because the Twitter may be where the winner of the November elections is decided.

And you know what else might be a cool Twitter.  A rap-off, or Twitter-off, between opposing rappers.  I can see it now as they fiercely tap on the smartphones.

T-Mobile's First Leather Clad Carly - Schwing!

Source:  Tmo-News.

Here's T-Mobile's first new look at Carly.

Does it make you wanna give T-Mobile a second chance or make a switch from another carrier?  No but it does make for a very interesting pivot by T-Mobile.  I wish them and Carly the best.  We need more competition, not less.

Perhaps, the new Carly will have a bigger impact with she uses the iPhone 5 this fall?

Carly Gets Leather And Catches Nick Fury Cooking At Home

Source: From Dave the Mobile Sage who sent me the link to Macstories.

It’s spring so it makes sense that people do some cleaning as they come out from under the winter days.  It’s the same for companies.  In this instance, it’s Apple and T-Mobile.  Both are seeking to do something different from what they’ve done in recent years and so far, I’m liking T-Mobile’s rebranding better.  However, Apple is playing on its strength – Siri.

Here, let’s start with T-Mobile.  This is the old Carly.  Me like. Girl I wanna marry.

This is the new Carly.  Me like even more!  Schwing!

Now here are Apple’s ads.  The first one features my other girl, Zooey D.  The second one features Nick Fury himself, aka Samuel L Jackson.

It’s nothing earth shattering but you get what Apple is playing on – the strength of Siri.  And while T-Mobile’s new Carly look may have Kate Beckinsale, my other girl, worry that there is a new Selene to continue Underworld series if she ever decides retire her leather outfits(which I hope she won’t), T-Mobile appealing to the 16-year old in me isn't likely going to sell a lot of devices.

I rather have T-Mobile show me what Android can do for me.  We know Samsung has already taken to doing commercials that try to connect users to their devices.  I think that works better.  But hey, if T-Mobile wanna push more Carly in leather at me, go for it!

iPhone With LTE and Heat

My iPhone 4 with Verizon gets warm at times. It's nothing I have not seen before in other mobile devices and certainly no where near laptop heat or even close to the non-issue temperature on the new iPad that the media tried to create into "heat-gate". Still, I have concerns for the next iPhone.

And that concern comes from the likelihood that the next iPhone will have an LTE antenna in it. And given Apple's drive to make its iOS devices lighter and thinner, heat concerns, even if it's not a real issue, will certainly bare more scrutiny than any other devices because it's the iPhone.

And that's before we even get into the battery life issue. My hope is that Apple brings back the ability for users to toggle between LTE and lower speed wireless options.

It could help with the heat issue and solve any battery issues we mobile users may be faced with.

Right now, as I am composing this post, I am in an area with low signal and the iPhone could be struggling to maintain the signal strength. Hence, I am draining the battery faster and the device has gotten warmer as well.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Apple Should Punish AT&T But Won't

I like for Apple to find a way to punish AT&T.  It's not likely to ever happen.  Apple does what it does which is to make the damn best device it can.  It doesn't spend a lot of time worry about what Google, Microsoft, or the carriers will do.  However, for AT&T to try to push Lumia 900 over the iPhone after Apple's iconic device revolutionized the wireless industry and gave AT&T years of profit, it simply doesn't sit well with me.

However, Apple probably won't.  However, Apple can continue to come out with the best damn iPhone it can make.  Cook, Ives, and the rest of the designers and developers can continue to build the best damn device they can and continue to dominate the smartphone sales over at AT&T and charge them the premium that the iPhone commands.

If Apple does exact any kind of punishment, it's likely through services and the iOS ecosystem that continues to make carriers irrelevant.  I don't know what future devices and services Apple is working on but I figure it'll try to expand into other services, maybe even more video options and expand on iTunes music services like Match.

By expanding and strengthening its ecosystem, Apple will continue to make the iOS devices even more important in our lives.  Maybe, that'll be punishment enough against AT&T.

Did AT&T Force Microsoft To Bring LTE To Lumia 900 For US or For Themselves?

I was running a couple of errands and listening to a Windows Phone podcast.  It was a good podcast in general because the folks running it are very good and I like the information they provide. The kinds of folks you'd wanna have a beer with.

The podcast is from WP Central.  I recommend it if you're even remotely interested in keeping up with what Microsoft is offering on the mobile front.  Having said that, in one of the episodes, they commended AT&T for bring LTE to Windows Phone.  They liked that AT&T convinced Microsoft to make this happen.

Maybe they did but they certainly deserved no praise.  AT&T, even by the podcasters' own admission, never have subscribers' interest at heart.  They don't take in your or my interests when they make any decision whatsoever.

Windows Phone was AT&T's final and only chance to break away from the domination of the iPhone.  Plain and simple.  The Lumia 900, the latest and greatest of Windows Phone devices, was suppose to supplant the iPhone 4S as the flagship device.  And bring LTE over just isn't going to make that happen.

Apple should include LTE in the next iPhone 5-6 months from now and any advantage that AT&T was pushing for in Windows Phone would disappear by then.

If the podcasters want to give AT&T praise for bring LTE to Windows Phone, then they should also blame AT&T for the wireless data issues that Lumia 900 users are currently experimenting, no?