Apple's Conquest Of Mobile Browsing Continues With Google Phone Platform

from the open-source-browser dept

Google's GPhone (non-)announcement wasn't a big surprise, but some of the tidbits that are now emerging about the Android mobile OS are intriguing. For example, in a new video, Google's Steve Horowitz mentions that the default Android web browser will be based on Webkit, which he says is "the industry standard these days." Webkit is the open source package of web browser libraries that's at the heart of Apple's Safari web browser, and was originally based on the Linux Konquerer browser. Nokia gave the libraries a big boost last year when it announced a WebKit-based browser for its own mobile phones. And this year, Apple used WebKit as the foundation for the iPhone's web browser. The Google announcement further consolidates WebKit's status as a leading platform for mobile web browsers. The choice of WebKit for mobile browsing makes sense. Mobile browsers need to be fast and have a small footprint, and Apple originally chose the Konquerer codebase because it found it to be much leaner than Mozilla's codebase. The growing popularity of WebKit is good news for Mac Safari users (like me), who are less likely to see those annoying "your browser is not supported" messages when they visit websites. It's also good for the broader web-browsing public, as it represents the rise of a third major competitor in the browser market. As WebKit continues to grow in popularity, it will make more sense for website developers to focus on conforming to standards rather than customizing a site to the quirks of a particular browser. That, in turn, will force Microsoft (and Mozilla, but mostly Microsoft) to focus on conforming to the standards themselves, contributing to a virtuous circle of standards compliance that ultimately makes everyone's lives easier.

Filed Under: browsers, mobile, open source, webkit
Companies: apple, google

Mobile Advertisers Recognizing The Benefit Of Not Spamming People

from the it-took-them-this-long? dept

For many years, there's been talk about the mobile advertising opportunity, with some advertisers practically drooling over the possibility of sending ads directly to users' mobile phones. It wasn't that long ago that the standard example used at many conferences and trade shows was how you'd be walking by a coffee shop and it would send you a text messaging offering you 20% off on a cup of coffee or a free bagel or something. Of course, that ignored the fact that probably 99% of the people hit with that message would consider it intrusive spam, especially if they were on the go. Luckily, though, some early complaints about such services (and the general anger towards spam, popup ads and other intrusive ads) has made it so many mobile advertisers have realized the focus needs to be on pull, rather than push. That is, as people are using mobile phones more and more for local information, there's tremendous value in putting advertisements that might be relevant to users as they're searching -- rather than simply bombarding them at random. The article does note some experiments with more intrusive push advertising, but set up in a way where the end users have a lot more control and say over the conditions under which they actually receive ads, in an attempt to keep them relevant. For once, it's good to hear of some restraint in the ad industry. Hopefully, it remains.

Filed Under: advertising, mobile, spam

Not Only Is Ricochet Still Around, But It's Been Sold, Yet Again

from the how-do-they-do-it dept

When Ricochet was launched in the late '90s, its cellular modem service for laptops was pretty unique. However, services from major mobile operators quickly passed it in terms of data speeds, coverage and price, and Metricom, the company behind Ricochet, eventually went bankrupt in 2001. Since then, it's traded hands several times, but its owners have never had much success with it -- which is hardly surprising, again, given the way it's been surpassed in nearly every aspect by other mobile broadband services, as well as the proliferation of WiFi hotspots. The surprising part is that Ricochet still exists at all, but it does, and -- brace yourself -- it's been sold again. It looks like the company only offers low-speed mobile service in the Denver area at this point, but it appears to be trying to expand into the WiFi market as well. We would say that it's probably not long for this world since it still doesn't offer much (if any) benefit over other services, but with the way it's managed to bounce around and stay afloat, perhaps we shouldn't.

Filed Under: mobile, wireless
Companies: ricochet

Cell Towers Making People Sick Is All In The Mind

from the psychosomatic dept

A lot of noise has been made in the UK lately about the supposed health dangers of WiFi and other types of wireless communications -- though the media stories about them are generally full of shoddy reporting and bad science. The reports, as a rule, feature a person who claims to have "electrosensitivity," and that radiation from WiFi or mobile phone networks makes them sick. Despite the claims, these people generally fail double-blind tests to see if they really can feel the presence of WiFi or other wireless networks, and another study has now once again confirmed this. Researchers said that people claiming to have electrosensitivity weren't faking it, and really were displaying the symptoms they claimed -- but that they were brought about by the people's belief that they were being harmed by radiation, and not the radiation itself. Just two of 44 people claiming to be "electrosensitive" correctly determined when the wireless signals were being emitted in six out of six tests; this compares pretty evenly to the 5 out of 114 control participants. Somehow, though, it's hard to imagine this study will end debate on the matter. After all, claiming that electronic smog is hurting children is far too juicy a story to pass up -- even if it isn't true.

Filed Under: mobile, radiation, wifi, wireless

Come To The Slocan Valley, Where Your Cell Phone Won't Work

from the sounds-of-silence dept

As the move towards the hyperconnected lifestyle -- in which people are never out of touch, whether from work or friends and family -- continues, the backlash against it rises. A group of citizens in a rural Canadian valley have asked a telco there not to build a planned cell tower, but not for the usual reasons. It's not unusual for communities to object to towers on aesthetic grounds, or because of health concerns, but people in this community don't want the tower as a tourist attraction. They hope to sell their area to visitors based on its lack of cell coverage, promising them a visit uninterrupted by "the incessant sound of ringtones, immediately followed by someone's shouted conversation." While this approach might be a bit extreme, since it denies the area's residents and visitors the benefits mobile phones can provide, as well as cutting down on the annoyances, it's not particularly surprising. As people get more and more fed up with many mobile users' manners, this sort of blunt-force way of dealing with things could become more popular.

Filed Under: manners, mobile, wireless

What Happens To Customers Whose Providers Disappear?

from the no-more-service-for-you dept

Last week, VoIP provider SunRocket pulled the plug, and it looks like it will be joined on Tuesday by mobile virtual operator Amp'd. But in addition to out of work employees and unpaid creditors, there's another group of affected people here that seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle: these companies' customers. As the comments to one of our posts about SunRocket attests, the company's customers were left hanging in the wind, with no real information about what would happen to their service, or their phone numbers. Amp'd users got a helpful text message ("AMPD MSG: Your svc may be disconnected on 7.24 @ 12:01am. Go to http://www.ampd.com or contact the location where you activated your service for further info.") and a hastily written FAQ. It's not like these companies will really care about their ex-customers, and acting in the name of morality, or even just being decent, won't pay their bills. But the bigger issue here is what this means for other upstart companies, particularly in entrenched industries like telecom. For all their faults and downsides compared to VoIP providers, it's unlikely that companies like AT&T or Verizon will go out of business and leave their customers in the lurch -- and that could make it harder for newer, smaller companies to pull in users.

Filed Under: mobile, telecom, voip, wireless
Companies: amp'd, at&t, sunrocket, verizon

Verizon Wireless Again Accused Of Crippling Handset Features

from the same-old-story dept

An anonymous reader has submitted a story about Verizon Wireless apparently crippling the GPS functionality on the BlackBerry 8830 handsets it sells, after advertising the feature as one of the device's selling points. This sounds a lot like the situation Verizon found itself in a few years ago, when a bunch of pissed-off customers filed a class-action lawsuit against the operator (which it ended up settling) after it advertised the Bluetooth functionality of a Motorola handset, then crippled it so it would only support certain functions. The legal or liability ramifications of what Verizon's done here aren't clear, but judging by forum posts, there's a number of annoyed customers out there. Of course, Verizon's done this sort of thing before, whether it's continuing to cripple Bluetooth, keeping its customers in a walled garden so they can only access data services that make Verizon money, or by making misleading claims about the "unlimited" aspects of some of its services. While Verizon's strategy seems to result in plenty of unhappy customers, it's unlikely to change until a good number of them start voting with their wallets and fleeing to other operators. After all, the bad publicity and occasional class-action suit doesn't seem to be having much effect.

Filed Under: gps, mobile, wireless
Companies: rim, verizon

Google Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is On Open-Access Wireless

from the open-the-wallet dept

Google has been one of the leading voices in the call for the FCC to adopt "open access" rules for winners of spectrum licenses in the upcoming 700 MHz auction. The auction, slated for late this year or early 2008, is a big deal because of the huge amount of spectrum on offer, as well as its propagation characteristics, which makes it ideally suited for high-speed broadband services. Google and a number of consumer groups have put forth a four-point open access plan to the FCC, and the Commission's chairman, Kevin Martin, appears to have met them halfway. Incumbent operators were, unsurprisingly, not happy with the plan, though AT&T now says it supports it. But Google and the consumer groups weren't satisfied with Martin's proposal either, mainly because it didn't include a provision that would force license winners to sell wholesale access to their networks on a non-discriminatory basis, and they see this as a crucial step in encouraging competition in the broadband space.

One of the telcos' responses to Martin's proposal was that putting restrictions and rules on license winners would hamper bidding and hold down the revenues the auction would generate. Now, in an effort to allay those fears, Google says that if the FCC adopts its four-point plan, it will commit to bidding $4.6 billion in the auction. It's been rumored for some time that Google was interested in getting its hands on some of the 700 MHz spectrum, and it's even talked about a model for real-time spectrum auctions. Still, saying the company's willing to pony up the reserve price for the auction doesn't make it certain that Google will come away with spectrum licenses, since the cost of the licenses will undoubtedly go beyond it -- nor is it even certain that Martin and the FCC will care about Google's pledge all that much. But this should be seen as a signal that Google wants to play ball, and that will cause some concern among incumbent operators. Even if Google itself doesn't come away with spectrum, it's possible it could help fund another bidder's efforts and help create a significant competitor in the wireless and broadband markets.

Filed Under: mobile, spectrum, wireless
Companies: at&t, fcc, google