Why Wireless Carriers Are Evil: AT&T Looking To Charge For FaceTime Over Cellular Data

Source:  Macrumors.

I think I can safely say that 99% of the mobile warriors who read this blog would agree with me that wireless carriers are evil.  For that 1 out of 100 readers still doesn't think so, get this:  AT&T is looking to see if they can profit off Apple's FaceTime communication over cellular data.

For Android, Windows, or Blackberry users, you might think what this has to do with you.  This is an issue that may not pertain to just Apple's FaceTime.  It could eventually affect Skype, Google Hangout, or any other video communication apps. 

I've been using Skype over 3G for a while now and I love it.  Quality varies by a wide spectrum for video calls but certainly VOIP works very well most of the time.  

So, yeah, if Apple, Google, or Microsoft allows the carriers to reassert control in this matter, we could be in for some very expensive times ahead.

Wireless carriers need to know their place in the mobile market.  Namely, as dumb pipelines that they are.  Zero innovation from these guys and are only operated by greedy execs looking for short-term gains.

I Wanna External Battery Case But With the New iPhone Around The Corner...

Source:  TUAW.

I want this battery case.  It has plenty of juice and best of all, it looks like something that Batman would use. Again, it's all about the battery life or lack there of in the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S has me considering getting this.

This Mophie Juice Pack Pro for $129 packs a punch that is unlike most other more anemic battery cases.  I've help off getting them because they just didn't give me what I wanted given how I think mobile devices, particularly the iPhone, ought to be used.

For some comparison to the awesomely long battery life that the RAZR MAXX from Motorola has, the iPhone 4/4S really doesn't measure up.  The RAZR has 3,300 mAh battery while the iPhone 4 has 1420 mAh and the 4S has 1432 mAh.  A huge diff.

With this juice pack, the iPhone will have its battery life augmented by the pack's 2500 Ahm.  That'll give the iPhone roughly 3900 Ahm.

Right now, we ration power when we know we're going to be away from the power plug for any length of time.  I had an older battery case that I used with the iPhone 4 over July 4th and with some regular use and videos and photo captures, I ran out of power just half way through the firework display in Long Beach.

It didn't matter since we got back to the car 15 minutes later and I had a car charger that was able to get me back up and running in no time.  Still, had the time gone on longer, I would have been out of luck.

This Mophie pack is the answer. So, why not get it?  It's not the $129 because you are getting quite a bit of juice for this.  rather, it's that the next iPhone is 3 months away.  I can probably get quite a bit of mileage out of this for the next three months but I really hate to spend this kind of money and know be able to use the case with the iPhone that is likely to have a radically different form factor.

I hope that Apple is able to significantly increase the battery life for the next iPhone but I am not all that hopeful.  With speculations about the 2012 iPhone sporting a bigger 4" screen and, quite possibly, thinner, any extra battery capacity Apple adds will go towards powering the bigger screen, a better CPU, and new iOS 6 features.  It's unlikely Apple will be able to match what Motorola gave to the Max.

Apple will attempt to squeeze as much juice out of this bigger battery to at the very least maintain parity with the iPhone 4S usage.

Maybe, just maybe, I should hold off until Apple unveils the next iPhone and Mophie come out with a Juice Pack Pro for the new iPhone.

Toys with iPhones And Macs

Source:  Cult of Mac.

Here some light-hearted pics of assorted action figure toys from Woody to Star Wars to even Steve Jobs.  Each with an iPhone and sometimes with an iMac or iPad.

Those are just a couple of the ones I like.  More at the link above.  The one below is the best of the lot.  And very fitting...Buzz and Steve together.

Green: Make Cities Green, Solar, And WiFi

Source:  Yahoo News, Treehugger, My Modern.

Always love talking about solar and mobile and there is another opportunity with my bit of twist.  

Remember the above pic?  It was Toyota's solar flowers to promote the Prius.  And it was awesome!  I don't know if they're around still but Toyota could have and should have build more of them all over.  It was absolutely brilliant and I am somewhat disappointed that we haven't seen or heard more about this or similar concept.

Now, New York City is kinda doing something similar.  So far, it has converted 10 payphones into WiFi hotspots for the public to use.  And more will come.  

No word on whether this is powered by solar but since it wasn't mentioned, I highly doubt it.  Still, I reckon as more and more of these free WiFi hotspots come online and this pilot program works as planned, I'm hoping other cities will follow.  And there is absolutely no reason to think that this won't work at all.  

In fact, I like to see cash rich tech companies jump on the bandwagon.  I mean this is right up Google's alley.  And there was also a time when Steve Jobs thought about establishing his own wireless network powered by WiFi hotspots.  

This really is something we see coming.  Right now, ubiquitous wireless connection is only possible through 3G or 4G networks operated by gatekeepers that really don't have the public's interests in mind.  WiFi will be the key first step to wrestle control away from them.

When those super WiFi you might have heard about, those using White Spaces, that have wireless ranges that are not measured in feet but in miles (I'll be honest:  I'm excited by opportunities that White Spaces networks represent but finding out the exact range has been hard to pin down.  Probably because the tech is so new.)

So, just imagine this: a city like LA, SF, or NY (for you international readers, here's a shout-out to London, Paris, Vancouver, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Berlin, HK, Singapore, New Delhi, Cairo, Rome, etc) blanketed in White Spaces networks powered by solar.

That is a mobile  future worth working towards.  Maybe also then, I can get a mobile device that doesn't require me to subscribe to those evil wireless carriers.

Hacker Alert: Yahoo Lost 400K Passwords

Source:  Reuters.

First, I didn’t know there was such a thing as Yahoo Voice but apparently, if you use it, you could be a victim of Yahoo’s negligence which has resulted the lost of 400,000 passwords.

So, if you think you could be one of these victims, best to do something about it really quickly. This comes on the heat of Sony’s PS network blunder last year and last month’s LinkedIn loss of more than 6 million passwords.

Truly, Yahoo doesn’t need this right now and it makes somewhat suspect just whether these companies really have their acts together or know what they are doing.  You’d think after Sony, LinkedIn, and others, companies would be scrambling to do audits on their security.

Forbes Post About Apple And T-Mobile Makes Sense

Source:  Forbes.

It used to be that any mention of Apple, the iPhone, and another carrier other than AT&T would have sparked a click frenzy.  It's like gallon of blood dropped into a pool filled with sharks and piranhas.  And this was especially true if the carrier was T-Mobile because it was the only other major GSM carrier in the United States other than AT&T.  As history would show, both T-Mobile's CDMA competitors, Verizon Wireless and Sprint, got the iPhones and T-Mobile is still on the outside looking in.

So, let's see if this Apple, iPhone, T-Mobile post will generate interest on par with what it was like a couple of years ago, before AT&T lost the iPhone exclusivity.

So, this Forbes post suggested the obvious: Apple should deal with T-Mobile.  I admit I haven't thought about T-Mobile for a long time since the merger with AT&T failed. And I had gained a bad taste for T-Mobile as its customer service quality waned.  Still, I thought Apple should deal with everyone.

However, I do think that Apple can pretty much dictate any terms to T-Mobile and it would have to accept it.  And with an added competitor with the iPhone, any thoughts of cutting iPhone subsidies by AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint be would met with pause.

I would like to go a step further in any Apple-T-Mobile deal.  Not only should Apple give T-Mobile iPhones for its post-paid customers, it should off customers the option for prepaying for the iPhone and favorable rates to go along with it.

The favorable rates would be a discount from post-paid rates since T-Mobile would not be subsidizing the purchases of iPhones for prepaid customers.

If this happens, it would not only be an important development but a historic shift from post-paid to pre-paid markets.  It would for the other major carriers to answer with their own options.  And with T-Mobile's 3G now faster and not much slower than LTE, AT&T and Verizon would have to think twice about simply relying on LTE as a marketing vehicle to gain/retain subscribers.

I would even suggest that Apple could flood the market with prepaid iPhones with a cheaper price and make it back with a cut of the monthly plans.

The mere fact that I can think of going down this route suggests that Apple has as well and more than likely have better plans to pad the huge pile of cash it already has.  And this all could start with a T-Mobile deal.

As an iPhone fan, I think it's time that Carly has an iPhone to go with her skin tight biker outfit.

iOS Mapping Has Great Chance Of Coming To the Mac - But As App Or Web or Both?

Source:  Appleinsider.

Looks like Apple is going to hit Google on the desktop too.  At least, on OS X. The weapon of choice could be Maps, Apple's newest app that could only be found on the forthcoming iOS 6.  What interest about this discovery by Technically Personal is that Apple could be sending the market a message.  It means to own more of the mobile and computing experiences.  The evidence is in the coding.  

Seriously, after Maps, what else?

What we don't know is if Maps will be just an app or can it be access online via a browser like other mapping services like Mapquest or Google's own map.  It is also entirely possible that Maps service will only go as far as iMovie and iPhoto where geo-tagging is used prevalently.  If that's the case, there may be no Maps app, either as a standalone app and/or browser-based, for OS X.  

Personally, I love to have Maps come to the Mac.  We've seen many iOS apps making the migration and Apple is looking to hurt Google and Microsoft by denying critical geo data from them.  

And another thing.  Siri.  You can bet that it's going to make the same jump from the iPhone to the Mac just as it has done to the iPad.  So, having Maps at least as a service on OS X makes a lot of sense.