Entries from August 2008 ↓

In yet another display of cutting down bandwidth, there are now reports that Telus, which has been providing an Unlimited data plan for some time now, is trying to force contract customers who use more than 5GB down to a 1GB service plan. Following many others before, it probably won’t be the last.

They are using a rule in the contract that says no streaming media is allowed, and applying it to YouTube, Flash, and any type of streaming download. This is, of course, ridiculous, as most web sites on the Internet have some type of multimedia. The reason is that they want to cut down on downloads, and keep adding more people without upgrading their equipment, or said simply: Greed.

It’s the same story as the scandal that went on with Comcast throttling P2P users, Rogers putting up very strict limits for the iPhone release, and so on. They are all symptoms of the same basic problem, which is the fact that western Internet and cellphone providers (usually the same companies) typically refuse to invest in their networks to allow for future growth, and instead prefer short term profits.

Compared with some providers in Asia, such as Korea, who have been investing for years, we now see why there is such a big difference in download speeds and available bandwidth. Nothing will be solved until either customers push the companies to change their greedy behavior, or governments step in.

Now that the iPhone App Store (along with iPhone 3G) has been out for over a month, there are many sites out there that decided to list and review apps. Should you get that $15 app or is the one at $6.99 good enough? I’ve been checking them out, and here I’ll list the most useful ones. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch you may find those interesting to bookmark.

The first link is the official one, the Apple App Store page. There’s not much to say about it, the directory lists the most popular ones, with the price and the official description. It’s not a complete list, since it only lists the top 10 in every category. It also does not offer reviews.

A user-created site is AppRater, which does include reviews, but has a somewhat difficult navigation. It allows users to include apps so there is no guaranty of what the site will be telling you.

The obviously named iPhoneAppReviews site provides very long and detailed reviews on a series of apps, with ratings. The apps are picked by the site, but people can request that they review a specific app.

The last site I’ll mention is the iPhone Application List which provides another list of apps for you to check out, along reviews, and very big screenshots. The site also provides many ways to share the reviews.

The common words from iPhone users is that the Apps Store is the best thing that firmware 2.0 brought them. There’s really no reason to not try out all the free apps and maybe some paid ones. One mention however is that some people have experienced increased unstability with their phones when many apps were installed. There’s 2 tips that usually seem to improve this: First, do a hard reboot and format the phone if need be, and second, make sure you install your apps via iTunes and not over the air, this also seems to cause issues for some. Have fun playing with your apps!

The first HTC phone based on the Google Android platform is starting to get noticed. It doesn’t have anywhere near the hype that other phone from the company in Copertino had, and it’s sort of too bad, since Google has the money and influence to create that type of hype if they wanted to.

As far as technical features go, it will be from T-Mobile, and be a similar form factor than the iPhone, with a large touch screen. The usual will be found, including maps, video and music player, wifi and 3G. It is set to launch before the end of the year.

It’s too bad that it’s taking phone manufacturers so long to adapt to the new market, and that none of them manage to get anywhere near the market hype as Apple does. In this world of colors and glamor, something that’s become as mainstream as a cellphone has can’t push a device based on features. That’s just not what the mass market is looking for. Cuteness, pretty colors, a large screen, an easy interface and an attention-grabbing marketing campaign is where it’s at. That’s what sells, and whoever is the best at those things, will win the gold.