A carrier's handset is optimized for their network. In T-Mobile's case that be VoLTE on 700MHz. Outside of iPhone or Nexus/Pixel devices you're very unlikely to get that extended network.
A carrier's features. For T-Mobile that'd be Wifi Calling: SMS & HD voice calls using a VPN over Wifi. Also taking advantage of RCS for native video calling and advanced SMS.
Carrier support. Got a problem? Carriers know everything about their own handsets, not so much about random third party ones. There's always self-service but most folks want answers given to them, not puzzling it out for themselves.
If your satellite launch fails your next insurance premium goes up and its that much harder to find future commercial customers.
If your passengers die your license will be pulled and insurance will be unaffordable, not to mention your customers decide yours is an experience they can skip.
Fundamentally different markets. Different customers, different services, different requirements (human-rated etc.)
T-Mobile hasn't had service contracts for years. T-Mobile also has a prepaid plan (no credit check) with unlimited domestic talk and text for, hey look at that! $25 + tax / 30 days. Perfect for your feature phone.
You'll need your account number and password/pin to switch your service to T-Mobile.
I was at Bose Headquarters the other day trying these out - the Hearphones are actually quite amazing.
Physically they're a black torc that fits loosely about two thirds around the neck. Attached a bit back from the front opening are two tethered earbuds equipped with Bose's really good tips, which come in three sizes. On the right hand tether is a small remote. On the outside of the earbuds are subtle bronze colored microphones.
Aside from being slightly smaller then other torc-style headphones they're not immediately different. They have their control on a remote, and of course the microphones on the earbuds, but nothing screams out also-for-hearing.
Putting them on in 360 mode was like listening to a live mic through, well, very good headphones. However using the app (we were using iPods) it was easy to control the base and treble to focus on what we were listening for - voices.
It was when the Hearphones were switched into directly-in-front mode they got exciting. In a room full of simulated loud coffee shop noise, and a dozen other demo-ees having conversations with their Bose-partners, it all faded away except for whomever I was facing.
Face this way and I could follow this conversation, face that and the other table came in clearly. For years I've had to position myself strategically in bars, restaurants, clubs and conferences - watching folks to ensure I'm following what they're saying. Suddenly that wasn't a concern.
I don't need hearing aids, and while I've spent some amount of time in loud clubs I've not particularly abused my ears. However coming on 50 years my ears aren't particularly reliable in noisy environments and now, suddenly, everything extraneous was muffled.
Sometimes an advanced technology really is like magic (and a really good demo.)
There's also a everything-in-front-of-you mode (180 degrees vs 360 degrees and about 35 degrees for those keeping track.) That would be for sitting at a table of people facing multiple correspondents.
Of course there's an app; iOS and Android. They apologized several times no Windows Mobile version (nobody looked concerned.) However the remote is intuitively designed and did everything necessary so no needing to be rudely screen-peering in the middle of a conversation. Volume up/down, treble/base, and switching between customizable modes.
The other big demo topic was being able to filter a TV or movie theater. Focus on the center speaker, crank the treble, and suddenly dialog popped - no more scrubbing back for what-just-got-said?
That they're also conventional Bluetooth headphones, with the noise-cancelling Dr. Bose invented, was taken for granted.
So, did I buy them?
Not yet. Their price is reasonable for being top-of-the-line noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones + the Hearphone technology but, a bit rich for me. Right now. However after another chaotic holiday party, a conversation where I mishear something important, or a conference where I'm straining to make out the content - yeah, probably.
Oh and if you're condemned to an "open office" cattle pen oh hella yeah. Selective noise cancelling with a music alternative would almost make those hellholes bearable.
First off this no-charge strategy is not confirmed.
Second what Samsung has been doing til now was installing nag screens and limiting battery charging to sixty percent. I'd be surprised if the US is the first country where they roll out no-charging. All their other methods were first launched in smaller markets.
Thirdly it is interesting they're supposedly software shutting-down the handsets and not simply denying them service. It'd be trivial to place every Note 7 on the blacklist maintained by US carriers for stolen devices.
Of course denying service means the devices are unreachable, so this might be the step before that, to ensure they're not kept around as wifi devices or fancy alarm clocks. Blocking the battery means they're effectively defanged - no charge means no chance of fire.
In my part of the world I haven't seen a Note 7 in weeks. I expect when a clerk points out a Note 7 is keeping a known fire hazard next to their genitals, or in their purse-of-important-stuff, or holding it to their face is asking for trouble, or charging it in their bedroom while sleeping is really scary, and insurance will no longer cover it's damages, the sane ones figure it's time to trade-in.
Pebble had a single source supplier for their displays.
That source is in financial trouble and unable to produce the displays Pebble depends on.
Therefore Pebble has no products to sell and thus no cash flow.
Therefore Pebble has had to wind down operations and pay off creditors.
Pebble's IP has some value to Fitbit and hiring a few of Pebble's suddenly-available engineers is a no-brainer but Fitbit has no interest in the Pebble company or it's products.
The lesson is to be very leery of DEPENDING on a single source supplier. Pebble was a healthy going concern until they could no longer get their needed displays. Then it went off the rails.
I do.
I'm nearly 50 years old, have lived in several places, have worked at a number of jobs over the years, had multiple romantic relationships in my life. I've made friends every year, in all of those places, through many diverse ways.
Are all of the folks I've friended currently on my short list? No. But that list of a dozen close friends has evolved over time with new ones entering and others dropping off as we move about, go through various stages of life, some have died, etc.
But they have my phone number. I have theirs. I may also have their closest friends or family members phone numbers.
That adds up to well over a hundred people.
And while I'm social I'm nobody compared to some of the butterflies I know. More than two people for every year of life? Those gregarious folks get, and use, that many numbers in a night on the town.
No, for most of us non-hermetic folks I'd guess a hundred friends or more is entirely unsurprising.
T-Mobile's coverage has changed dramatically in the past year. Hit their website for a current map of your area.
Check out the hexagons - that is where a handset of theirs has recently confirmed the mathematical theoretical coverage map. Adjust for your indoor status (are your walls straw, wood, or brick?)
Note that non-T-Mobile branded handsets likely don't have support for 700Mhz/Band 12/Extended LTE using VOLTE turned on - and that can make a big difference.
Malls suck. So do big office buildings. Also stadiums. As do any sort of "complex". At least they suck for cellular reception. Layer upon layer of steel flooring with few if any windows on the outside; dense core structures creating yet more RF shadows and reflections. All being served by exterior antennas at oblique angles.
Wifi can only augment service. It's too short range, too inefficient, and too balkanized. Indoors the access points are all stepping on top of each other and while Passport 2.0 will improve authentication it does nothing for handoffs and the other issues.
Indoor LTE promises to be spectrally efficient, relatively easy to deploy, and cost effective (each access point covers enough area/devices to be worth the cost/effort.) They're been widely seen as the solution for local cellular 'infill' - now they're going indoors.
Remember cell towers typically radiate downward at an angle, in an umbrella pattern. Therefore a locally dense area requires three or more millionish-US$-each towers around it. Or a thousand plus wifi access points, every 20m-50m, all requiring backhaul. Or a dozen ~US$50,000 indoor microsites offering LTE. They start to look very, very, attractive.
As to Wifi being removed from handsets, that is tremendously unlikely. Offloading heavy domestic data usage to another medium is still preferable. Corporate customers would flat out refuse any such handsets. And consumers would be rightfully incensed. Nobody (well, Verizon might try merely on their maximum-evil premise) would go for that.
The Kindle ebooks doesn't do what you're asking for. So either drop the Kindle ebook requirement or abandon those interactive features.
My recommended alternative would be a small website. If the hardware has a basic web browser with JavaScript support what you want is trivially doable.
FWIW a TiddlyWiki would be very appropriate; self-contained, portable, your content can be easily adapted to it, and extensible for your needs.
When Nokia bought Navteq they bought one of two global mapping companies, for about US$ 7.5 billion. For that they got, almost immediately, free maps for every Nokia handset. Around the planet. Also data sets for some industry leading augmented reality. Those services were, and are, huge. They sold lots of handsets and led the way to lots of Microsoft collaboration (Windows Phone et al comes with Nokia Here built-in.) That eventually led to Microsoft buying the phone unit outright.
Did Nokia lose money selling Here off? Maybe, maybe not. They sold lots of handsets around the world featuring Here. That augmented reality wowed lots of folks and sold some more, plus positioned Nokia products as forward looking. They sold some online mapping to websites, though that was probably not a big revenue stream. They eventually sold the failing phone unit (and kept Here!) So they got a lot of milage out of Here, maybe US$5 billion.
Going forward, I hope the new owners keep the consumer editions of Here. I'm off to Glacier Nat'l Park next week, and have Here loaded on all my handsets. The iPhone has just the states I regularly visit preloaded. One of my Android handsets has all of North & Central Americas preloaded, for fast travel convenience.
I'm used to sering legions of befuddled tourists wandering around national park attractions confused their smartphone maps (Google Maps & Apple Maps, both largely dependant on streaming maps) aren't working. I used to bring a Windows phone along explicitly for those situations, now I just load Here.
Oh, and why not carry a dedicated GPS unit? They don't come with cameras, translators, phones, email, etc. Their maps? Likely sourced from, yes, Here.
Many years ago a buddy got some new phone lines. One had just been a reservation number for an extremely large restaurant. After a few days of folks trying to make reservations through him he called the restaurant and offered them the number back if they'd pay the transfer fees. They declined.
So he started taking reservations. "Four for the Ponderosa Room at 7pm? Under 'Caruthers'? Not a problem; please check in with the Hostess when you arrive."
After a week of this he called the restaurant back, and offered them their reservation number back. For just the fees? Oh no, assholes, now it's gonna cost something!
He got some nominal amount, just 'cause he was pissed about his time & trouble.
Y'know T-Mo has been selling non-contact discount plans (no phone subsidy) for months now? Generally at better rates then prepay? $49.99/month unlimited talk, $79.99/month unlimited talk, txt, web.
T-Mo TOS don't appear to allow tethering to 3G. They do allow tethering on Edge at no additional charge (so back down your device.) Their happy helpful customer support (really, I think they pump drugs into their air) will happily walk you through tethering on a BlackBerry, no additional cost. Tho >10GB in a billing cycle you get throttled.
That said T-Mo plans are cheapest, win JD Powers for service, are great about supporting random phones, coverage has improved considerably in the past few years, and T-Mo does lead on Android.
T-Mobile doesn't have real 3G?
T-Mobile USA just DOUBLED their 3G speeds to 7.2 Mbps, and is further TRIPLING it to 21 Mbps over the next six months. With coverage to 200+ million.
I think you know not of what you post.
T-Mobile G1 with Google gets free hotspots too
on
iPhone Free WiFi Is Back
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Same for G1 users.
T-Mobile offers free unlimited access to all of their T-Mobile hotspots (which includes the new AT&T rebranded ones for another 5 years) to their G1 data plan subscribers. T-Mo even has a free GPS-enabled Hotspot Finder for the G1 that handles the login details for you.
Every major US carrier has a monthly plan. They're generally not well-advertised, and are primarily intended for those with poor credit, but they're available.
The problem is the sheeple who honestly think that a mid-market cellphone costs US$50. They're the ones who buy that US$250 phone for US$50 (along with a 2-year contract!), the next day drop it in water / drive a truck over it / simply lose it, and then get infuriated when their carrier declines to sell them another US$250 phone for $50 (and doesn't offer a 4-year contract!).
So the industry is stuck with a customer-base who only hate one thing more then 2-year contracts, and that is paying full price for phones!
will be free to attach any device and any application to its network by the end of the year - provided those devices and applications met certain minimum specifications.
For a fee.
Yep, Verizon built a US$20 million lab to 'certify' products submitted for use on their network, and expects to recoup that investment by charging for their certification services. So unless someone with reasonably deep pockets is gonna back your whatsmawhoseits it won't going on Verizon's network. Compare this to, say, T-Mobile whose policy is pretty much if it takes a SIM plug it in and they'll be happy to bill you for it.
What is Verizons real goal?
Getting out of the phone business.
No carrier likes to be in the phone business - it costs money for all of those stores & racks of phones & inventory management and huge support overhead, not to mention the complex subsidy plans that everyone loathes. So Verizon's plan is to outsource it all to the phone manufacturers. Sure, buy any Verizon 'certified' phone (same as the rest of the world using GSM enjoys) and plug it in. Got a problem?? Call whomever you bought it from, or the manufacturer, just not Verizon.
It's an easy way for Verizon to expand the offerings on their network, at no risk or cost to Verizon, while shifting the overhead of supporting those phones elsewhere. Verizon will charge for the service, that lovely pricey plan, just now you'll be buying from their list of 'certified' products, not their Verizon-branded phones.
Expect in a few years to walk into Verizon stores with minimal selection of phones, just enough range to cover the basics for those too out-of-the-loop to buy their phone elsewhere. Or even a sublet strategy where phone manufacturers pay for square footage and supply their own staff to sell their brand phones.
But innovative homebrew startups etc.? Not on big red it'll be expensively certified products paying for the Verizon privilage thankyouverymuch.
T-Mo has publicly said they want to be the first out with Android. That fits in with their usual strategy - first with Windows Mobile 6, first with new Blackberry models & OS's, first with new HTC models, etc.
Android is still half-baked - witness the software you can download and install already. So there's no platform yet to ship, and won't be for a few more months. No platform no train to board.
Furthermore it'll be years before any WiMax deployment can match any of the Big-4 (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) networks. Also keep in mind T-Mo already offers free roaming (over AT&T, Alltel, Unicel, Centennial, Dobson, etc.) as well as UMA over WiFi so T-Mo's network is effectively much larger then gets shown on maps.
Lastly T-Mo started lighting up their 3G network this month in NYC, with '20 cities' (New England is a city?) promised this year. They're gonna be looking for a flagship product or two to show off their new offering and Android looks like a natural fit arriving at the right time on the smartphone side.
T-Mo looks to be shaping up well - late to the game but with spectrum to grow into, solid phone offerings, some unique products (home service for $10!) and unlimited data for $20/month. With their solid customer service, great rates, and likely Android phone they should be a real market changer in a few months.
The basic idea behind the General Magic system was to distribute the computing load of a typical user's tasks across many machines in the network.
...
Programs could also be written in a new programming language, Telescript, which made communications a first-class primitive of the language. Telescript was compiled into a cross-platform bytecode in much the same fashion as the Java programming language, but interestingly was able to migrate between platforms. This radical idea defined a robust agent that could serialize its code and data and execute itself on a remote computer. For instance, a user might start a Telescript application on their handheld, travel over the cell phone network and start a Telescript application on a large Telescript server. The two applications would then interact to provide a complete application. The user-end software was tasked primarily with request and display.
The developers saw a time when Telescript application engines would be widely available across various communications systems, first the cell phone networks and desktop machines, and later the internet. Eventually Telescript would become ubiquitous.
Thus 'agents' would be authorized to act on your behalf, triggered by various criteria, performing searches, purchasing goods & services, etc.
While this particular implementation of targeted sound is only recently practical 'in the wild' the practice isn't. Indeed in the 70's it was quite popular in museums and galleries.
Typically a long tube with a speaker on top was hung over the target area. With a bit of carpet below to absorb sound splash it is fairly easy to provide site-specific audio, typically narration or soundscapes.
For example walking up to a display of geese a viewer might also become a listener treated to the sound of their honking cries. At the next exhibit a different audio selection is offered. Because the sound is transmitted in a fairly narrow cone and largely prevented from reflecting the audio presentations don't overlap or disturb others even a few steps away.
The New York State Museum, in Albany, New York, USA used to (& might still) have a number of displays utilizing this. It can be quite effective, if a bit startling the first time it is encountered (as I recall spotlights were used to indicate 'audiospots'.)
So targeted sound is not entirely novel, just getting wider application.
A more positive commercial use could be in music stores. Stand on the blue circle to hear band A, walk over to the yellow circle to hear band B, all sans headphones or disturbing other nearby shoppers.
A public-spirited use could be at crosswalks. Instead of loud piercing noises, often poorly imitating bird sounds, an alert area could be created specifically on the walk route. Only those approaching or on a crosswalk would hear it's state, leaving those nearby but not crossing free from unnecessary noise pollution.
Indeed if handled respectfully targeted sound could augment advertising displays in a welcome, constructive, way. Stand in front of a sign for a radio station and hear it live, while not annoying those disinterested. On a subway platform sit on the purple bench to hear sponsored classical music, avoid it to be exempt.
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A carrier's handset is optimized for their network. In T-Mobile's case that be VoLTE on 700MHz. Outside of iPhone or Nexus/Pixel devices you're very unlikely to get that extended network.
A carrier's features. For T-Mobile that'd be Wifi Calling: SMS & HD voice calls using a VPN over Wifi. Also taking advantage of RCS for native video calling and advanced SMS.
Carrier support. Got a problem? Carriers know everything about their own handsets, not so much about random third party ones. There's always self-service but most folks want answers given to them, not puzzling it out for themselves.
If your satellite launch fails your next insurance premium goes up and its that much harder to find future commercial customers. If your passengers die your license will be pulled and insurance will be unaffordable, not to mention your customers decide yours is an experience they can skip. Fundamentally different markets. Different customers, different services, different requirements (human-rated etc.)
And a dozen other mesh strategies. Qualcom's LTE Direct
T-Mobile hasn't had service contracts for years. T-Mobile also has a prepaid plan (no credit check) with unlimited domestic talk and text for, hey look at that! $25 + tax / 30 days. Perfect for your feature phone. You'll need your account number and password/pin to switch your service to T-Mobile.
I recall there was a left/right setting.
Physically they're a black torc that fits loosely about two thirds around the neck. Attached a bit back from the front opening are two tethered earbuds equipped with Bose's really good tips, which come in three sizes. On the right hand tether is a small remote. On the outside of the earbuds are subtle bronze colored microphones.
Aside from being slightly smaller then other torc-style headphones they're not immediately different. They have their control on a remote, and of course the microphones on the earbuds, but nothing screams out also-for-hearing.
Putting them on in 360 mode was like listening to a live mic through, well, very good headphones. However using the app (we were using iPods) it was easy to control the base and treble to focus on what we were listening for - voices.
It was when the Hearphones were switched into directly-in-front mode they got exciting. In a room full of simulated loud coffee shop noise, and a dozen other demo-ees having conversations with their Bose-partners, it all faded away except for whomever I was facing.
Face this way and I could follow this conversation, face that and the other table came in clearly. For years I've had to position myself strategically in bars, restaurants, clubs and conferences - watching folks to ensure I'm following what they're saying. Suddenly that wasn't a concern.
I don't need hearing aids, and while I've spent some amount of time in loud clubs I've not particularly abused my ears. However coming on 50 years my ears aren't particularly reliable in noisy environments and now, suddenly, everything extraneous was muffled.
Sometimes an advanced technology really is like magic (and a really good demo.)
There's also a everything-in-front-of-you mode (180 degrees vs 360 degrees and about 35 degrees for those keeping track.) That would be for sitting at a table of people facing multiple correspondents.
Of course there's an app; iOS and Android. They apologized several times no Windows Mobile version (nobody looked concerned.) However the remote is intuitively designed and did everything necessary so no needing to be rudely screen-peering in the middle of a conversation. Volume up/down, treble/base, and switching between customizable modes.
The other big demo topic was being able to filter a TV or movie theater. Focus on the center speaker, crank the treble, and suddenly dialog popped - no more scrubbing back for what-just-got-said?
That they're also conventional Bluetooth headphones, with the noise-cancelling Dr. Bose invented, was taken for granted.
So, did I buy them?
Not yet. Their price is reasonable for being top-of-the-line noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones + the Hearphone technology but, a bit rich for me. Right now. However after another chaotic holiday party, a conversation where I mishear something important, or a conference where I'm straining to make out the content - yeah, probably.
Oh and if you're condemned to an "open office" cattle pen oh hella yeah. Selective noise cancelling with a music alternative would almost make those hellholes bearable.
Second what Samsung has been doing til now was installing nag screens and limiting battery charging to sixty percent. I'd be surprised if the US is the first country where they roll out no-charging. All their other methods were first launched in smaller markets.
Thirdly it is interesting they're supposedly software shutting-down the handsets and not simply denying them service. It'd be trivial to place every Note 7 on the blacklist maintained by US carriers for stolen devices.
Of course denying service means the devices are unreachable, so this might be the step before that, to ensure they're not kept around as wifi devices or fancy alarm clocks. Blocking the battery means they're effectively defanged - no charge means no chance of fire.
In my part of the world I haven't seen a Note 7 in weeks. I expect when a clerk points out a Note 7 is keeping a known fire hazard next to their genitals, or in their purse-of-important-stuff, or holding it to their face is asking for trouble, or charging it in their bedroom while sleeping is really scary, and insurance will no longer cover it's damages, the sane ones figure it's time to trade-in.
That source is in financial trouble and unable to produce the displays Pebble depends on.
Therefore Pebble has no products to sell and thus no cash flow.
Therefore Pebble has had to wind down operations and pay off creditors.
Pebble's IP has some value to Fitbit and hiring a few of Pebble's suddenly-available engineers is a no-brainer but Fitbit has no interest in the Pebble company or it's products.
The lesson is to be very leery of DEPENDING on a single source supplier. Pebble was a healthy going concern until they could no longer get their needed displays. Then it went off the rails.
Actually T-Mobile USA is a US company (TMUS). Now only 66% owned by Deutsch Telekom.
They also no longer sell Huawei devices to their customers.
The latter is likely tied to their accusations of industrial espionage and theft by Huawei employees: Possibly paywallled NYT article.
So there's no love lost between the two companies.
I do. I'm nearly 50 years old, have lived in several places, have worked at a number of jobs over the years, had multiple romantic relationships in my life. I've made friends every year, in all of those places, through many diverse ways. Are all of the folks I've friended currently on my short list? No. But that list of a dozen close friends has evolved over time with new ones entering and others dropping off as we move about, go through various stages of life, some have died, etc. But they have my phone number. I have theirs. I may also have their closest friends or family members phone numbers. That adds up to well over a hundred people. And while I'm social I'm nobody compared to some of the butterflies I know. More than two people for every year of life? Those gregarious folks get, and use, that many numbers in a night on the town. No, for most of us non-hermetic folks I'd guess a hundred friends or more is entirely unsurprising.
T-Mobile's coverage has changed dramatically in the past year. Hit their website for a current map of your area. Check out the hexagons - that is where a handset of theirs has recently confirmed the mathematical theoretical coverage map. Adjust for your indoor status (are your walls straw, wood, or brick?) Note that non-T-Mobile branded handsets likely don't have support for 700Mhz/Band 12/Extended LTE using VOLTE turned on - and that can make a big difference.
Wifi can only augment service. It's too short range, too inefficient, and too balkanized. Indoors the access points are all stepping on top of each other and while Passport 2.0 will improve authentication it does nothing for handoffs and the other issues.
Indoor LTE promises to be spectrally efficient, relatively easy to deploy, and cost effective (each access point covers enough area/devices to be worth the cost/effort.) They're been widely seen as the solution for local cellular 'infill' - now they're going indoors.
Remember cell towers typically radiate downward at an angle, in an umbrella pattern. Therefore a locally dense area requires three or more millionish-US$-each towers around it. Or a thousand plus wifi access points, every 20m-50m, all requiring backhaul. Or a dozen ~US$50,000 indoor microsites offering LTE. They start to look very, very, attractive.
As to Wifi being removed from handsets, that is tremendously unlikely. Offloading heavy domestic data usage to another medium is still preferable. Corporate customers would flat out refuse any such handsets. And consumers would be rightfully incensed. Nobody (well, Verizon might try merely on their maximum-evil premise) would go for that.
The Kindle ebooks doesn't do what you're asking for. So either drop the Kindle ebook requirement or abandon those interactive features. My recommended alternative would be a small website. If the hardware has a basic web browser with JavaScript support what you want is trivially doable. FWIW a TiddlyWiki would be very appropriate; self-contained, portable, your content can be easily adapted to it, and extensible for your needs.
When Nokia bought Navteq they bought one of two global mapping companies, for about US$ 7.5 billion. For that they got, almost immediately, free maps for every Nokia handset. Around the planet. Also data sets for some industry leading augmented reality. Those services were, and are, huge. They sold lots of handsets and led the way to lots of Microsoft collaboration (Windows Phone et al comes with Nokia Here built-in.) That eventually led to Microsoft buying the phone unit outright. Did Nokia lose money selling Here off? Maybe, maybe not. They sold lots of handsets around the world featuring Here. That augmented reality wowed lots of folks and sold some more, plus positioned Nokia products as forward looking. They sold some online mapping to websites, though that was probably not a big revenue stream. They eventually sold the failing phone unit (and kept Here!) So they got a lot of milage out of Here, maybe US$5 billion. Going forward, I hope the new owners keep the consumer editions of Here. I'm off to Glacier Nat'l Park next week, and have Here loaded on all my handsets. The iPhone has just the states I regularly visit preloaded. One of my Android handsets has all of North & Central Americas preloaded, for fast travel convenience. I'm used to sering legions of befuddled tourists wandering around national park attractions confused their smartphone maps (Google Maps & Apple Maps, both largely dependant on streaming maps) aren't working. I used to bring a Windows phone along explicitly for those situations, now I just load Here. Oh, and why not carry a dedicated GPS unit? They don't come with cameras, translators, phones, email, etc. Their maps? Likely sourced from, yes, Here.
Many years ago a buddy got some new phone lines. One had just been a reservation number for an extremely large restaurant. After a few days of folks trying to make reservations through him he called the restaurant and offered them the number back if they'd pay the transfer fees. They declined. So he started taking reservations. "Four for the Ponderosa Room at 7pm? Under 'Caruthers'? Not a problem; please check in with the Hostess when you arrive." After a week of this he called the restaurant back, and offered them their reservation number back. For just the fees? Oh no, assholes, now it's gonna cost something! He got some nominal amount, just 'cause he was pissed about his time & trouble.
Even More Plus Unlimited Talk + Text + Web.
T-Mo TOS don't appear to allow tethering to 3G. They do allow tethering on Edge at no additional charge (so back down your device.) Their happy helpful customer support (really, I think they pump drugs into their air) will happily walk you through tethering on a BlackBerry, no additional cost. Tho >10GB in a billing cycle you get throttled.
That said T-Mo plans are cheapest, win JD Powers for service, are great about supporting random phones, coverage has improved considerably in the past few years, and T-Mo does lead on Android.
T-Mobile doesn't have real 3G? T-Mobile USA just DOUBLED their 3G speeds to 7.2 Mbps, and is further TRIPLING it to 21 Mbps over the next six months. With coverage to 200+ million. I think you know not of what you post.
Same for G1 users.
T-Mobile offers free unlimited access to all of their T-Mobile hotspots (which includes the new AT&T rebranded ones for another 5 years) to their G1 data plan subscribers. T-Mo even has a free GPS-enabled Hotspot Finder for the G1 that handles the login details for you.
Every major US carrier has a monthly plan. They're generally not well-advertised, and are primarily intended for those with poor credit, but they're available.
The problem is the sheeple who honestly think that a mid-market cellphone costs US$50. They're the ones who buy that US$250 phone for US$50 (along with a 2-year contract!), the next day drop it in water / drive a truck over it / simply lose it, and then get infuriated when their carrier declines to sell them another US$250 phone for $50 (and doesn't offer a 4-year contract!).
So the industry is stuck with a customer-base who only hate one thing more then 2-year contracts, and that is paying full price for phones!
For a fee.
Yep, Verizon built a US$20 million lab to 'certify' products submitted for use on their network, and expects to recoup that investment by charging for their certification services. So unless someone with reasonably deep pockets is gonna back your whatsmawhoseits it won't going on Verizon's network. Compare this to, say, T-Mobile whose policy is pretty much if it takes a SIM plug it in and they'll be happy to bill you for it.
What is Verizons real goal?
Getting out of the phone business.
No carrier likes to be in the phone business - it costs money for all of those stores & racks of phones & inventory management and huge support overhead, not to mention the complex subsidy plans that everyone loathes. So Verizon's plan is to outsource it all to the phone manufacturers. Sure, buy any Verizon 'certified' phone (same as the rest of the world using GSM enjoys) and plug it in. Got a problem?? Call whomever you bought it from, or the manufacturer, just not Verizon.
It's an easy way for Verizon to expand the offerings on their network, at no risk or cost to Verizon, while shifting the overhead of supporting those phones elsewhere. Verizon will charge for the service, that lovely pricey plan, just now you'll be buying from their list of 'certified' products, not their Verizon-branded phones.
Expect in a few years to walk into Verizon stores with minimal selection of phones, just enough range to cover the basics for those too out-of-the-loop to buy their phone elsewhere. Or even a sublet strategy where phone manufacturers pay for square footage and supply their own staff to sell their brand phones.
But innovative homebrew startups etc.? Not on big red it'll be expensively certified products paying for the Verizon privilage thankyouverymuch.
Nothing of the sort.
T-Mo has publicly said they want to be the first out with Android. That fits in with their usual strategy - first with Windows Mobile 6, first with new Blackberry models & OS's, first with new HTC models, etc.
Android is still half-baked - witness the software you can download and install already. So there's no platform yet to ship, and won't be for a few more months. No platform no train to board.
Furthermore it'll be years before any WiMax deployment can match any of the Big-4 (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) networks. Also keep in mind T-Mo already offers free roaming (over AT&T, Alltel, Unicel, Centennial, Dobson, etc.) as well as UMA over WiFi so T-Mo's network is effectively much larger then gets shown on maps.
Lastly T-Mo started lighting up their 3G network this month in NYC, with '20 cities' (New England is a city?) promised this year. They're gonna be looking for a flagship product or two to show off their new offering and Android looks like a natural fit arriving at the right time on the smartphone side.
T-Mo looks to be shaping up well - late to the game but with spectrum to grow into, solid phone offerings, some unique products (home service for $10!) and unlimited data for $20/month. With their solid customer service, great rates, and likely Android phone they should be a real market changer in a few months.
Magic Cap is being reinvented.
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Thus 'agents' would be authorized to act on your behalf, triggered by various criteria, performing searches, purchasing goods & services, etc.
Everything Old is New Again...
While this particular implementation of targeted sound is only recently practical 'in the wild' the practice isn't. Indeed in the 70's it was quite popular in museums and galleries.
Typically a long tube with a speaker on top was hung over the target area. With a bit of carpet below to absorb sound splash it is fairly easy to provide site-specific audio, typically narration or soundscapes.
For example walking up to a display of geese a viewer might also become a listener treated to the sound of their honking cries. At the next exhibit a different audio selection is offered. Because the sound is transmitted in a fairly narrow cone and largely prevented from reflecting the audio presentations don't overlap or disturb others even a few steps away.
The New York State Museum, in Albany, New York, USA used to (& might still) have a number of displays utilizing this. It can be quite effective, if a bit startling the first time it is encountered (as I recall spotlights were used to indicate 'audiospots'.)
So targeted sound is not entirely novel, just getting wider application.
A more positive commercial use could be in music stores. Stand on the blue circle to hear band A, walk over to the yellow circle to hear band B, all sans headphones or disturbing other nearby shoppers.
A public-spirited use could be at crosswalks. Instead of loud piercing noises, often poorly imitating bird sounds, an alert area could be created specifically on the walk route. Only those approaching or on a crosswalk would hear it's state, leaving those nearby but not crossing free from unnecessary noise pollution.
Indeed if handled respectfully targeted sound could augment advertising displays in a welcome, constructive, way. Stand in front of a sign for a radio station and hear it live, while not annoying those disinterested. On a subway platform sit on the purple bench to hear sponsored classical music, avoid it to be exempt.