New iPhone 4S Adds Voice Recognition and Goes Global

New iPhone 4S Adds Voice Recognition and Goes Global

By TidBITS Staff.

The iPhone 4S announced at Apple's media event last week features upgrades across all its systems, with the addition of voice recognition and dictation through a new component called Siri. Improved internals mean a faster phone and notably faster graphics, as well as a potential doubling of the highest mobile downstream rates. What doesn't change is the industrial design of the phone, which retains the look and feel of the iPhone 4.

An improved camera will produce better photos in low-light conditions, take photos more rapidly, and shoot 1080p high-definition video. An upgrade to the phone's cellular systems, incorporating both GSM and CDMA technologies, means that the iPhone 4S can be used on any network in the United States and most networks worldwide.

The new phone will be available on 14 October 2011; Apple started taking pre-orders on 7 October 2011 and racked up over 1 million pre-orders in the first day. In the United States, with a two-year contract for cellular services, the iPhone 4S will cost $199 for 16 GB of storage, $299 for 32 GB, and $399 for 64 GB, retaining the same pricing as the iPhone 4 had for the 16 and 32 GB models. (There was no 64 GB iPhone 4.) Yes, they will be available in both black and white versions. Apple will also continue to offer two older phones at reduced prices under two-year contracts: the iPhone 3GS for free and the iPhone 4 for $99, both with 8 GB of storage.

Although this may not be as significant a deal as the addition of Verizon Wireless, the iPhone 4S will also be available from Sprint Nextel in the United States, leaving T-Mobile as the odd carrier out. We're sure existing Sprint customers will appreciate this. Sprint's coverage area is among the poorest, and it has been hemorrhaging customers for years. However, among the four major U.S. mobile operators, Sprint retains the only unlimited mobile data usage plan for new customers. (AT&T and Verizon have grandfathered unlimited plans, and T-Mobile throttles services to dial-up modem rates after a monthly limit is reached.) While the free iPhone 3GS will be available only on AT&T's network, the subsidized iPhone 4 will be available for AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint customers.

Outside the United States, the iPhone 4S will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom on 14 October 2011. Another 22 countries will follow on 28 October 2011, and Apple plans to hit a total of 70 countries by the end of the year.

Siri Voice Recognition -- The iPhone 4S feature we're dying to try is Siri, a voice-recognition and voice-synthesis system that's tied in with expert-system analysis of what you say. You can ask Siri for information, such as recommendations for nearby restaurants or the current weather, or use it for dictation. It can speak to you and read items and documents.

During the keynote, Apple's Scott Forstall demoed Siri with a variety of questions. When asked what the weather would be like today, Siri returned the forecast. Queried for a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto, Siri responded, "I've found five Greek restaurants, and I've sorted them by rating." Siri has direct access to Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha, and can thus define words and make calculations, such as how many days until Christmas. Other examples include setting timers, looking up contacts, creating notes, and searching the Web.

Siri isn't limited to command and control, though. Forstall showed Siri reading email messages in the notification queue, and you will be able to compose and dictate email to Siri. The real question is how accurate Siri will be in real-world usage, since there's little more annoying than talking to a command-and-control system like a toddler or correcting egregious errors in dictated text.

Initially, Siri will work in English, French, and German, and Apple is calling it a beta, promising more languages and services in the future.

It's worth noting that Siri runs only on the iPhone 4S, undoubtedly due to needing the processing power of Apple's dual-core A5 CPU. That chip provides up to twice the performance of the iPhone 4, and the dual-core graphics are supposedly up to seven times faster. Despite that, talk time has been increased to 8 hours.

A Clearer Picture -- The best camera is often the one you have in your pocket, and while the iPhone camera has improved over time, there's no question that it hasn't competed well with even point-and-shoot cameras. With the iPhone 4S, Apple is aiming at that market, switching to an 8-megapixel sensor that takes photos at 3264 by 2448 pixels, which should be sufficient for an 8-by-10-inch (20-by-25 cm) print.

As Charles Maurer has discussed in a number of TidBITS articles, the raw number of pixels in a sensor isn't the only important factor in image quality. The iPhone 4S has a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor that enables it to gather 73 percent more light than the iPhone 4 sensor. It also features an infrared filter for improved color accuracy and uniformity. Then there's the lens, which features five lens elements to provide 30 percent better sharpness.

It also lets in a lot of light, with an f/2.4 aperture, which should result in good low-light performance. On the processing side, the camera can do face detection, which can improve focus, and automatic white-balance, which improves color, thanks to an Apple-designed chip. Most importantly, it boasts a mere 0.5-second delay between shots.

Apple has posted several unretouched sample photos for viewing and download, although notably they're all shot in daylight. We'll have to wait until the iPhone 4S is released to test the low-light performance of the new lens and processor.

On the video side, the iPhone 4S's camera is capable of HD video at 1080p, with real-time digital image stabilization and real-time temporal noise reduction.

Cellular Networking -- The iPhone 4S is a "world phone" in the true meaning of that phrase for the first time. Past iPhones that worked worldwide were still restricted to the GSM standard, which dominates with billions of users. However, the competing CDMA standard used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in the United States is still employed by hundreds of millions of cell phone owners. Apple made a special model of the iPhone 4 for Verizon. The iPhone 4S now includes both CDMA and GSM technology, allowing the sale of a single model around the globe. Unfortunately, the "world phone" turns out to be more about simplicity in Apple's manufacturing process than portability for consumers. (See "Apple's World Phone Isn't Global for Customers," 7 October 2011.)

The iPhone 4S promises improved 3G data speeds for GSM networks, doubling the previous HSDPA download rate of about 7 Mbps (raw, not usable) to 14.4 Mbps. AT&T and T-Mobile have deployed HSPA+ networks that are even faster than that, although those networks will support Apple's new higher rate along with the previous slower speeds used by other phones. Networks with 14.4 Mbps and faster download rates are also available in many other countries. In practice, faster networks are better at handling capacity - more phones in use in the same area around a mobile base station - than in necessarily speeding up a given phone's download performance.

Those hoping for an iPhone with LTE (Long Term Evolution) built in to support AT&T and Verizon's in-progress 4G networks will be disappointed, but it's not surprising. The necessary chips aren't yet small enough and cheap enough to include in a handset as small as the iPhone, and they still consume too much power. (Carriers want to call HSPA+ a "4G technology," by the way, and Apple joked about that during the announcement. But HSPA and HSPA+ are just faster renditions of 3G and share the same old architecture. LTE is something new.)

Apple also said it has created a unique two-antenna system for cellular connections that should improve call quality. While the company didn't offer many details, it said that the iPhone 4S could switch between the antennas during a call, and this likely eliminates the "holding it wrong" problem that was overblown after the iPhone 4's introduction. Most cell phones have areas which, if covered by skin, drop signal reception, and the iPhone 4 was no exception. With the capability to switch between two separately optimized antennas - perhaps with different polarization and different lengths - the iPhone 4S would presumably toggle between the two when signal quality drops.

Current iPhone customers of AT&T and Verizon can determine whether they're eligible for Apple's advertised pricing. The two-year subscription plan subsidizes the hardware's initial cost; if you've recently bought an iPhone, the price may be higher. For example, Jeff Carlson purchased an iPhone 4 last year. AT&T shows that the 16 GB model will cost him $449 before 25 November 2011, or $199 after that date. You can check your eligibility at Apple's site.

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iOS 5.1 Brings Smattering of Features and 4G Confusion

iOS 5.1 Brings Smattering of Features and 4G Confusion

by Agen G. N. Schmitz.

In addition to the iPad hardware that debuted last week (see "Apple Announces Third-Generation iPad," 7 March 2012), Apple released iOS 5.1 for all iOS 5-compatible devices, which includes all versions of the iPad, the iPhone 3GS and later, and third generation and later of the iPod touch. Overall, it's a maintenance release with a small collection of new features and fixes - but one user interface change in particular is causing some confusion.

After updating to iOS 5.1, many AT&T iPhone 4S owners will find that the cellular indicator in the menu bar changed from 3G to 4G - even though their phones haven't magically added faster data capabilities. Rather, this change reflects that the iPhone is connecting to AT&T's HSPA+ network, which is essentially a faster version of 3G. For comparison, HSPA+ supports a raw downstream capability of up to 14 Mbps compared to a maximum download rate of 73 Mbps for LTE (Long Term Evolution).

Despite the HSPA+ network being a slowpoke compared to LTE, AT&T equates it as being "4G." If that sounds like weasley marketing purposes, it is - but AT&T has been accorded cover for this distinction by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In a press release from December, 2010, the ITU agreed that "other evolved 3G technologies" could find shelter under the 4G standards umbrella as long as they provided "a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities" in respect to current 3G networks.

When the iPhone 4S was launched last October, Phil Schiller even joked about the that carriers wanted to call HSPA+ a "4G technology" (see "New iPhone 4S Adds Voice Recognition and Goes Global," 4 October 2011), saying: "We're not going to get into a debate in the industry over what's 4G and what isn't, we'll leave that for others to talk about." However, as Brad McCarty noted at The Next Web (among many others), this seems to be an acquiescence by Apple to AT&T's marketing demands, and one that could lead to a slippery slope of additional carrier requests down the line.

Controversy aside, the iOS 5.1 update does offer several new features that, while not groundbreaking, are certainly welcome additions. First and foremost, you can now delete individual photos from your iCloud Photo Stream. To do so, open the Photos app, tap the Photo Stream album, and then tap the share button in the top right corner. From there, select individual photos and then tap the red Delete button in the lower right corner.

Other imaging-related additions include enhanced face detection capabilities in the Camera app (being able to recognize more than one fact at a time), a redesigned Camera app for the iPad that moves the capture button to the right side of the screen where your thumb is more likely to be, and a new camera shortcut placed on the unlock screens of the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation). Instead of swiping to the right to unlock your iPhone and then fumble through your home screens to find the Camera app, tap the Camera button to the right of the Slide to Unlock slider or swipe up on the screen go directly into the Camera app.

Subscribers to iTunes Match will find that Genius Mixes and Genius playlists have returned to their iOS devices. And iPad owners will enjoy "optimized" audio for movies and TV shows that should sound both louder and clearer. Podcast controls for playback speed and rewinding a currently playing podcast by 30 seconds have also returned.

Japanese language support has been added to Siri (joining English, French, and German), though its availability will be limited during the initial rollout. Finally, iOS 5.1 addresses some unnamed bugs that affected battery life, and provides a fix for occasional audio dropped during outgoing calls.

To update an iOS 5.0 device to version 5.1, connect it to a computer running iTunes and click the Check for Update button in the device's Summary screen (if a dialog doesn't automatically appear). Or, update over the air without connecting to a computer: Go to Settings > General > Software Update and follow the instructions there.

Tim Cook Shares Apple's Latest Numbers

At the iPhone 4S announcement last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage carrying the script that Steve Jobs had honed to perfection, recapping recent Apple store openings and giving a numbers-heavy overview of how Apple's various products and businesses are doing.

Apple now operates 357 stores in 11 countries, including 6 stores in China, which still represents a largely untapped market for Apple. The just-opened Hong Kong Apple store, for instance, received 100,000 visitors on the opening weekend and sold more Macs on its opening day than has any other Apple store.

Even while the brick-and-mortar Apple stores continue to be key to Apple's success in selling hardware, the company has managed to transition software sales to the iOS App Store and Mac App Store. It's likely that the ease of downloading boosted sales of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, which has had 6 million downloads so far. Cook said that Lion's uptake rate was 80 percent higher than Snow Leopard's, and it took Lion only 2 weeks to reach 10 percent of the Mac installed base. Windows 7 took 20 weeks to reach the same level of penetration. Cook said Apple has 58 million Mac OS X users.

As impressive as that number of users sounds, it's nothing compared to the 250 million iOS devices that Apple has sold so far. And although Cook didn't break out iPhone sales specifically, he did say that the iPhone 4 accounts for over half of all iPhones sold to date.

The iTunes Store now contains 20 million songs, and over 16 billion songs have been downloaded in the past 8 years. Cook used the term "mind-boggling," which doesn't seem like hyperbole. Of course, the iPod was a key driver in those sales, and Apple has sold over 320 million iPods so far, with over 45 million in the last year. (Both of those numbers include the iPod touch, which Apple considers both an iPod and an iOS device at different times.)

Although Apple didn't talk about the Mac App Store's results beyond Lion downloads, Cook did share numbers from the iOS App Store. It now contains more than 500,000 apps, 140,000 of which are made specifically for the iPad. Customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps, and Cook was careful to point out that Apple has paid developers more than $3 billion, which means that Apple has brought in roughly $4.3 billion in app revenue so far.

As always when Apple shares these numbers, it's worth remembering that although there's no reason to disbelieve them, there's also no question that Apple is cherry-picking those numbers that will sound the best and couching them in terms that present Apple in the brightest light. Nevertheless, it's clear that Apple is on top of the world right now.

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U.S. Gasoline Climbs to $3.8148 a Gallon, Lundberg Survey Shows

U.S. Gasoline Climbs to $3.8148 a Gallon, Lundberg Survey Shows

By Barbara J. Powell and Moming Zhou.

The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations increased 12.31 cents to $3.8148 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.

The price jump covers the two-week period ended March 9 and is based on the Camarillo, California-based company's survey of about 2,500 stations. The price is 30.87 cents higher than a year earlier, when the average was $3.5061.

"As refineries complete their maintenance, overall motor- gasoline supply will become more generous, and this will probably put a stop to the price rise," Trilby Lundberg, the president of Lundberg Survey, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "This of course depends on whether crude-oil prices cooperate."

Prices advanced as West Texas Intermediate crude in New York fell 2.2 percent to $107.40 a barrel, while Brent oil in London rose 0.4 percent to $125.98 in the two-week period from the last survey.

Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped 17.96 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $3.3324 a gallon in the two weeks ended March 9.

U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell 396,000 barrels in the week ended March 2 to 229.5 million, a six-week low, the Energy Department reported March 7.

Gasoline consumption slipped 1.2 percent, and the amount of the fuel supplied over the past four weeks was 7.8 percent below a year earlier, department data show.

Retail Demand

Retail demand in the seven days ended March 2 declined 1.5 percent from the prior week and was 6.5 percent below a year earlier, according to MasterCard (MA) Inc.'s SpendingPulse report on March 6. Motor-fuel use during the previous four weeks was 6.3 percent below a year earlier, the 50th consecutive decline in that measure.

Crude prices may fall this week as calls for negotiations between nuclear powers and Iran may reduce tension that's helped bolster crude prices this year, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Fourteen of 28 analysts, or 50 percent, forecast oil will fall through March 16. Ten respondents, or 36 percent, predicted prices will rise and four estimated there will be little change. Last week, 56 percent of surveyed analysts expected an increase.

Crude-oil supplies rose 832,000 barrels to 345.7 million in the seven days through March 2, according to the department, the highest level since September. Inventories (DOESCROK) at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York-traded West Texas Intermediate oil, increased 2.37 million barrels to 36.2 million, the highest level since July.

On Long Island, regular gasoline increased to $4 a gallon, according to Lundberg. Los Angeles-area retail stations averaged $4.35.

The highest price in the lower 48 U.S. states among the cities surveyed was in Los Angeles, Lundberg said. The lowest price was in Denver, Colorado, where customers paid an average of $3.36 a gallon.

The Japan-China connection: DeNA and Sina team upin mobile gaming

Japan's DeNA and China's Sina have teamed up to form a big mobile gaming market.

DeNA is a $1.4 billion company that operates the Mobage mobile social gaming network with 35 million lucrative users. Under the deal, Sina will enable users of its giant microblogging platform, Weibo.com, to log into DeNA's Mobage platform with their existing account information.

The move shows that Japan's DeNA is wasting no time in expanding from its Japanese and U.S. operations (it owns Ngmoco in San Francisco) to other big markets around the world as it seeks to build a multibillion-dollar mobile social gaming empire.

That means Weibo.com's 300 million members will be able to play the Chinese-language version of Mobage. DeNA and Sina plan to create a special Mobage web site under a Sina domain in April, where Weib.com users can download Mobage China games to their Android-based smartphones. The Mobage icon will appear inside the Weibo.com Android app, making it easy to log in.

About 50 percent of Weibo.com users access the service from mobile devices, and the Weibo.com mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times. DeNA launched Mobage China for Android in July 2011 and iOS in November. It has 30 games currently available.

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Electronic Arts reveals new Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars online numbers

Electronic Arts reveals new Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars online numbers

By Heinrich Lenhardt.

Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello is feeling "awfully good" about the Mass Effect 3 launch." Speaking at today's Wedbush Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference in New York City, Riccitiello estimated that the game sold 890,000 units during the first 24 hours in North-America alone, meeting the company's expectations: "We anticipated it doing well, so we're happy."

International sales numbers are not included because Mass Effect 3 launched a couple of days later in Europe. Riccitiello is optimistic about the game's prospects as editorial reviews are very favorable with an aggregated Metacritic score of 94 out of 100. [Update: EA said today that it has shipped 3.5 million copies of the game to retailers. ]

He also pointed out the success of the downloadable content (DLC) that was already available for purchase on Mass Effect 3′s launch day. Retail chain GameStop saw a tie ratio of 40 percent of day one customers who purchased a download code for additional content together with the game: "The tie ratio at the register is the highest in their history", said Riccitiello.

Using packaged-good products to increase digital revenue is becoming increasingly important for game publishers like EA because of the higher growth and margin numbers associated with digital products.

Mass Effect 3 is the latest action role-playing game by EA's Bioware studios. This conclusion to an epic SF trilogy is the first Mass Effect game to launch simultaneously on PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360. It adds a new co-op multiplayer mode to the story-driven single-player campaign. Riccitiello called the Mass Effect franchise "one of my favorite IPs; my family is as addicted to it as am I."

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello

Electronic Arts' CEO also updated and clarified subscriber numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the company's big gamble in the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game category and another high-profile release by its Bioware division.

Riccitiello reported 1.7M active subscribers, which sounds like nothing much has changed compared to the earnings report numbers released on February 1. But a month ago about half of those players were still in the first 30 days of the subscription period, which is included with the purchase of the game, while the "vast majority [of players] is now triggered through that point and they're recurring subscribers."

Obviously EA doesn't want 1.7M subscribers to be the limit for the Star Wars MMO, which took six years and an alleged $200M budget to produce. Riccitiello called The Old Republic "the most successful MMO through this period in the history of the industry. But we're nowhere relative to what the opportunity in front of us is."

The chief executive mentioned new "content releases every quarter, systems, tutorials, feature upgrades and the future of expansion content" to keep players engaged. He explained that EA "tailored the game for the core user, people who were existing MMO players. What we do from here … [are] things designed to increase the funnel at the top. That means content changes, feature changes, new ways to bring the product to market … so new users can find entry into the game a lot easier." One example is the recently introduced buddy key program, which allows subscribers to invite friends for a free trial period.

Bioware has just released a trailer for the new content of version 1.2, which comes free with a paid subscription. Judging by Riccitiello's comments, the announcement of a major game expansion pack can only be a matter of time. Star Wars: The Old Republic's main competitor, World of Warcraft from Activision Blizzard, has released three $40 expansions over the years.

Justice Department may sue Apple, publishers on e-books

(Reuters) - The Justice Department has warned Apple (AAPL.O) and five major publishers that it plans to sue them, accusing them of colluding to raise the prices of electronic books, a person familiar with the probe said on Thursday.

Several parties have held talks to settle the potential antitrust case, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The five publishers facing possible Justice Department action are Simon & Schuster Inc, a unit of CBS Corp (CBS.N); Lagardere SCA's (LAGA.PA) Hachette Book Group; Pearson Plc's (PSON.L) Penguin Group (USA); Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH; and HarperCollins Publishers Inc, a unit of News Corp (NWSA.O).

U.S. and European officials have been investigating whether e-book publishers and Apple fixed prices in the growing electronic book industry, blocking rivals and hurting consumers.

Publishers adopted an "agency model" in 2010, around the time that Apple launched the iPad, allowing publishers to set the price of e-books. In turn, Apple would take a 30 percent cut.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the Justice Department's lawsuit warning to Apple and the publishers.

The European Commission said in December that it was looking at the same five publishers for potential violations of antitrust law in how e-books were priced.

The escalation in the antitrust probe comes as publishers battle Amazon (AMZN.O), which had previously set its own, discounted prices for electronic books in order to sell its Kindle electronic reader.

In a parallel class action lawsuit now in a Manhattan court, Apple is accused of working with publishers just before its iPad was launched in 2010.

The suit brought on behalf of e-book customers, alleges Apple and the publishers colluded to shift e-book pricing from a wholesale method, where retailers pay for the product and charge what they like, to agency pricing, where publishers would tell retailers what they can charge.

The class action lawsuit, filed by law firm Hagens, Berman, Sobol, Shapiro, LLP, accuses Apple of being a "hub" for collusion.

Apple's push for agency pricing was detailed in Walter Isaacson's biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

The book says that Jobs, who died in October, was aware of publishers' frustration with Amazon. It quotes Jobs as saying: "So we told the publishers, 'We'll go to the agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30 percent and yes, the customer pays a little more but that's what you want anyway.' ... So they went to Amazon and said, 'You're going to sign an agency contract or we're not going to give you the books.'"

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a Justice Department spokeswoman.

HarperCollins could not immediately be reached for a comment. Penguin, Hachette and Simon & Schuster declined to comment.

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Mobile Device That's Better for a Jotter Than a Talker

Mobile Device That's Better for a Jotter Than a Talker

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG.

Lots of folks carry a smartphone, and, at least some of the time, tote a second mobile device - an iPad or other tablet. But some people might prefer a product that combines the two. Similarly, many have come to love the finger-controlled interface popularized by Apple, but might prefer at times to use a stylus, a common tool in the pre-iPhone days.

Samsung is hoping to offer all of the above. On Sunday, it's introducing to the U.S. a phone-tablet hybrid with a large 5.3-inch screen that uses a stylus as well as your fingers. It's called the Galaxy Note and costs $300 with a two-year AT&T contract.

While the Note could be mistaken for a small tablet, Samsung insists it's a phone that merely offers some of the roominess of a tablet. And in fact, it runs the last purely phone-oriented version of Google's Android operating system, called Gingerbread. This product positioning may be due to bad memories of another company's effort to sell such a 'tweener: Dell's 5-inch Streak, which was marketed as a tablet that could make calls and failed miserably in 2010.

After testing the Galaxy Note, I have decidedly mixed feelings about it. It isn't a very practical phone and, as a tablet, it can't match the experience of the iPad, which is more spacious and has over 150,000 apps designed for it. However, I can see where some folks might consider the 5-inch screen a good trade-off for much better portability than other tablets, and Samsung has done some very interesting work in making the stylus, which is stored in a slot on the device, useful.

As a mobile phone, the Galaxy Note is positively gargantuan. It's almost 6 inches long and over 3 inches wide. When you hold it up to your ear, it pretty much covers the entire side of your face. You look like you're talking into a piece of toast.

The Note is so big, an iPhone can almost fit within its display. And it dwarfs even the more-bloated crop of recent Android phones, like Samsung's own Galaxy S II series, whose screen can be as large as 4.5 inches. And while it can fit into a large pocket or handbag, the Note isn't going to slip unobtrusively into your jeans or a small purse. It weighs 6.28 ounces, nearly 30% more than the iPhone and nearly 50% more than some Galaxy S II models.

For people who use Bluetooth earpieces all the time, or who primarily use the speakerphone function, the Note's size may not be a problem. But for the rest, the Note is just too large to go without a more reasonably sized phone, which defeats the one-device argument.

Voice quality in normal use was good. But, in my limited tests of its Bluetooth voice capabilities, the caller on the other end felt the Note sounded significantly worse than the iPhone or other Android models I've tested.

However, as a data device, I liked the Note a lot. Its screen sports a high resolution that made photos, videos and text look very good. It uses AT&T's high-speed LTE data network, where available, and in my tests it was very fast. The larger screen enabled more of a Web page to be visible without scrolling than on typical phones.

Like all Android devices, it has fewer, and, in my opinion, generally lower-quality third-party apps than the iPhone. But those I tried worked well. The Note was consistently speedy and responsive.

The 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera both did a good job. Photos and videos I shot from the rear camera were excellent. But I found the sheer size of the Note undercuts its convenience as a camera and there's no dedicated camera button or quick way to launch the camera when the screen is locked, as there is on some other phones.

In moderate mixed use, where I played music and videos, surfed the Web, texted, used email constantly and took pictures, the Note's battery lasted more than a full day between charges.

Unlike Apple, Samsung allowed AT&T to load a bunch of its own apps you might not want on the Note, like a $10 to $15 a month program for locating family members via cellphone GPS. A particularly egregious example is a Yellow Pages app that's jammed into the very top of your contact list.

Another drawback: While other Android phones I've tested can be plugged into either a PC or a Mac so you can manually transfer files onto them, I couldn't get the Note to do this with either of two Macs I tested with it. It did work with Windows machines.

The stylus is a big plus, at least for users who like to jot down notes, create sketches or annotate documents in a way that's much more precise than using a fingertip. Even on the iPad, which wasn't designed for a stylus, third-party styli have become quietly popular, but Samsung has taken the idea much further.

The Note's stylus, called the S Pen, can be used instead of a finger to launch and operate apps. But that isn't its main purpose. It's meant to work closely with a special app called S Memo that allows you to take notes or make sketches. These can be saved or shared via email or text messaging, or uploaded to sites like Facebook. They can include photos or typed text.

The software allows the stylus to draw in different colors and widths and to emulate a brush or marker.

A button on the side of the stylus can be pressed while tapping the stylus on the screen to bring up a light version of S Memo for quick notes, or to capture whatever is on the screen as a photo that you can annotate with the pen and send off to others.

Samsung plans more pen-oriented apps, and there are some games and drawing apps for the stylus. Some similar apps are available for the iPad and iPhone, but Samsung is investing more in the stylus and what it can do. For people who like jotting notes or sketching, the stylus alone could be a reason to buy the Note.

The Samsung Galaxy Note isn't for everyone, and I can't recommend it as the main mobile phone for most people. But as a stylus-driven small tablet, it might be just what some users are looking for.

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New Apple Operating System Aims to Knit Together Its Products

New Apple Operating System Aims to Knit Together Its Products

By BRIAN X. CHEN.

With the next version of Apple's OS X operating system for its Mac computers, the company has one clear message: If you're going to buy one Apple product, you might as well keep buying more.

Apple released a preview on Thursday of the software, called Mountain Lion. It introduces several new features that move it closer to iOS, the software running on iPhones and iPads. While Apple is the world's biggest smartphone maker, its share of the PC market is still small, so tying the two together could help it sell more computers.

Mountain Lion includes some apps and features that were previously exclusive to Apple's mobile devices: Messages, Notes, Reminders and Notification Center. And it has a strong focus on iCloud, Apple's online service for storing and synchronizing data between mobile devices and Macs.

When users first start up Mountain Lion, they are asked to enter their iCloud credentials. This way, content like notes, messages and event reminders can be easily shared between multiple Apple devices. For example, if a user jots something down in the Notes app on an iPhone or iPad, that same note will appear in the Notes app in Mountain Lion on a Mac.

Apple's iCloud is one of several new so-called cloud services available from technology companies, including Amazon, Dropbox and Microsoft. Though the details of these services vary among companies, they generally focus on storing files on online servers as opposed to a local hard drive, so that multiple devices can have access to the data over an Internet connection.

Apple is thinking about "a world where the personal cloud is rapidly displacing the personal computer as the center of the consumer's digital life," said Michael Gartenberg, an industry analyst with Gartner.

With the Mountain Lion update, Apple is calling the overall operating system OS X, instead of Mac OS X. This move and the continuing convergence between Macs and iOS devices raises questions about whether one day, the two products will run the same operating system. Mr. Gartenberg said he did not think that would be the case.

"When you try to unify those devices, you end up with weird devices," he said. Apple is creating a similar look and feel for the two operating systems to create a sense of familiarity among its different computing platforms, which could make customers more loyal to the brand, Mr. Gartenberg said.

In other words, the similarities and new features mean that if you own an iPhone, it makes more sense to buy a Mac as opposed to a Windows PC. Or if you own a Mac, you might as well get an iPhone or iPad, as opposed to an Android device.

"Consumers don't like change and they don't like uncertainty," said Stephen Baker, vice president for industry analysis at the NPD Group. "When I, as the consumer, know that I can get a consistent experience across all my devices, it makes it much easier for me to buy products from that company since I know the learning curve will be short."

Apple released the early version of Mountain Lion on Thursday for software makers to get a head start on making apps for the operating system. The official Mountain Lion upgrade is due for release this summer, one year after the release of Mac OS X Lion, Apple's current Mac operating system.

An Apple spokesman said no executives were available to comment.

The annual release schedule for OS X upgrades shows that Apple is still pushing Mac products, even though the iPad and iPhone account for 72 percent of the company's total revenue. But many features in Mountain Lion are already in iOS, so it appears that the Mac is still in the back seat.

"Apple's future is iOS," said Phillip Ryu, chief executive of Impending, a company that makes iPhone apps. "It's obvious OS X is playing catch-up and second fiddle. The Mac is in Apple's future, but it's not the destination."

Take a load off with crowdsourced bathroom locator apps

By Scott Raymond.

Summary: In a hurry? Feeling the pressure build? Don't strain any longer, there are public bathroom locator apps available for Android and iPhone.

How often has this happened to you? You're in an unfamiliar place, and the call of nature hits you unexpectedly. Many stores don't let you use the bathroom, even if you buy something. What if you're not in a mall, or a department store, or near a gas station where facilities are ubiquitous.

Don't feel down in the dumps, because you don't have to dance around the issue any longer. Thanks to your smartphone and a selection of applications, you can relieve yourself of worry. I found several apps that were available on both Android and iPhone platforms. They really help out in a pinch.

First up is Sit or Squat. This app is free for both Android and iPhone, and also has a website. You can find bathrooms by entering a location, or by GPS locator. You can rate the facilities, leave a review, or even add a new location with photos.

Next up is Toilet Finder. Free for both Android and iPhone, it also has Nokia and Windows Phone versions as well. Also a crowd-sourced bathroom locator, it shows the nearest bathrooms on the map, along with distances-which is handy when your speed is reduced by clamping your legs together.

Finally there's Find Toilets, which is free for Android (with ads) and 99 cents for the iPhone version. This one stands out by providing custom directions to the nearest facility. With GPS, it also provides latitude and longitude, which is quite handy if you need to nuke the site from orbit after that burrito.

And if you need to keep yourself occupied while you're taking care of business, you can grab these games for your phone: Drag Toilet Paper for Android and iDrag Paper for iPhone.

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Mozilla's Boot2Gecko Mobile Platform and Gaia UI

Mozilla's Boot2Gecko Mobile Platform and Gaia UI

By Ryan Paul.

Mozilla launched a new project last year called Boot2Gecko (B2G) with the aim of developing a mobile operating system. The platform's user interface and application stack will be built entirely with standards-based web technologies and will run on top of Gecko, the HTML rendering engine used in the Firefox web browser. The B2G project has advanced at a rapid pace this year and the platform is beginning to take shape.

The B2G team at Mozilla is preparing to give a demo of the platform's user experience at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) event. Mozilla's Brendan Eich told us via Twitter that the B2G project has already attracted partners, including one that is developing its own custom home screen. This suggests that multiple parties, possibly hardware vendors, are interested in adopting the platform.

According to a roadmap recently published by Mozilla, the B2G project could potentially reach the product stage by the second quarter of 2012. That's a highly ambitious target, but the project's impressive rate of development suggests that it can be done. The pervasive use of HTML and JavaScript to build the user interface and application stack is no doubt speeding the project along. Web technologies are very conducive to rapid development.

The B2G platform consists of three main layers. The bottom layer, which is called Gonk, includes the Linux kernel, the hardware abstraction layer, the telephony stack, and other low-level system components. The middle layer is the Gecko rendering engine, which has been improved with new APIs that expose device capabilities. The top layer is Gaia, the B2G user interface, which is built entirely with HTML and JavaScript.

The Linux kernel that is used in Gonk is said to be "reasonably close" to upstream Linux. According to Mozilla's documentation, Gonk uses some of the underlying bits of the Android open source project, including some minor kernel customizations, in order to make it easier for hardware vendors to get B2G running on Android hardware. B2G is not based on Android, however, and will not run Android applications. It's currently possible to replace the Android environment on a Samsung Galaxy S II with a B2G build.

Much of the interaction between the Gecko and Gonk layers will be mediated by a B2G process that runs with a high privilege level and acts as a sort of Gecko server. The B2G process will paint to the framebuffer and interact with hardware components like a built-in GPS antenna or camera.

The wireless modem functionality is implemented in a radio interface layer (RIL) daemon, which B2G will interact with through a simple proxy process. Actual web content and multimedia playback will be handled by separate processes that communicate with the B2G process.

Mozilla aims to build the entire B2G user interface and application stack with native HTML and JavaScript. In order to accomplish that, Mozilla launched the WebAPI project, which exposes device functionality to web content through JavaScript APIs. Mozilla has already previously introduced APIs for accessing certain device capabilities, such as the accelerometer and geolocation APIs that are supported in the mobile versions of Firefox.

The WebAPI project goes a step further and adds a great deal of additional functionality for tasks like taking pictures with the built-in camera, dialing the phone, accessing the device's battery level and status, sending and managing SMS messages, accessing the user's address book, and making a device vibrate. These capabilities are largely made accessible to web content through a set of JavaScript APIs. This means that the B2G dialer interface, for example, is just a web page that uses a JavaScript function to initiate a call.

Mozilla is working to standardize these APIs through the W3C Device APIs working group. In theory, the same underlying JavaScript APIs that are used to enable access to underlying platform features on B2G could eventually be supported natively in the default web browsers that ship with other platforms.

The standardization effort around device APIs is especially significant. If the APIs gain widespread adoption, it would make it possible for large portions of the B2G user experience and application stack (which are, essentially, just web content) to run in web browsers on other platforms. At that heart of Mozilla's agenda for B2G is a vision of the future in which browser-based mobile applications, built with standards-based HTML and JavaScript, will be capable of doing everything that can be done today with the native mobile application development frameworks.

Because B2G's Gaia user interface layer is implemented in HTML and JavaScript, it can technically run in a regular desktop web browser. Of course, the device-related capabilities will only work when the content is run in an environment that has WebAPI support.

We tested the Gaia home screen user interface and several of the platform's applications in a Firefox nightly build. All we had to do to get it running was download the code from the relevant GitHub repository and then open the homescreen.html file in Firefox.

When the page loads, the user will see the B2G lock screen, which displays the current date and time. The home screen interface can be accessed by dragging the lock screen up. The home screen displays a grid of application launchers and has a notification bar at the top. You can drag a notification slider down from the bar, much like the equivalent user interface element in Android.

If you look at the source code of the homescreen.html page, you will see that the contents of the interface, including the lock screen, are created with HTML div tags with some JavaScript code to handle interaction and populate the values. It's quite simple and predictable web content.

Individual applications run inside of a frame in the homescreen interface. We tested several applications, including a dialer, a web browser, and a map application. Like the home screen, these are all implemented in HTML and CSS. The web browser is basically a web page with an HTML input element for the URL bar and an embedded iframe element where the page content loads.

The current implementation of the Gaia environment is still simplistic and incomplete, but it offers a compelling demonstration of how conventional web content can be used to create a smartphone user experience. It's possible to do anything in the B2G user interface that can be done with HTML and CSS, so the possibilities for styling and theming are prodigiously extensive. Such intrinsic flexibility could help make B2G appealing to hardware vendors because it would make it easier for them to create custom user interfaces that differentiate their products.

Mozilla hasn't created an HTML-based widget toolkit for application development. The applications currently included in Gaia are just straight markup with CSS for design. It's theoretically possible to use existing HTML widget toolkits in B2G, however, such as jQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch.

The B2G project is off to an impressive start. The underlying concept of bringing native application capabilities to the standards-based web technology stack is also tremendously compelling. It hints at the possibility that the open web could someday provide a unified application platform for mobile devices.

It's also worth noting that the project is entirely open. As Eich pointed out to us yesterday in response to our coverage of Open webOS, the B2G project has had open governance and public source code since its first day. B2G also benefits from Mozilla's engineering talent and potential partners. The B2G platform has an opportunity to bring positive disruption to the mobile landscape and be a serious contender.

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