Palm's Foleo: Bad execution, not a bad idea
By: By Kevin Fitchard
I'm probably alone in thinking this, but I'm rather disappointed to see Palm's Foleo kicked to the curb...
iNstructing the iLliterate
By: By Ed Gubbins
After clamoring for the iPhone like it was the last Zagnut bar at Fat Camp, many users are reporting their trouble understanding how to operate the thing, according to National Public Radio...
Mapping beyond location
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Tele Atlas, like its competitor Navteq, provides the base maps and GPS coordinates that applications developers use to design their location content. To say Tele Atlas provides just maps would be an understatement, though...
Whither Wi-Fi?
By: By Carol Wilson
Judging by this week’s headlines, Wi-Fi is an up-and-down technology. The launch of the Apple iPhone, with its built-in Wi-Fi, certainly gives this technology a boost. But the news that two cities -- Corona, Calif., and Anchorage, Alaska -- have cancelled municipal Wi-Fi networks that suddenly got too expensive is reason to pause...
Wrestling with open access
By: By Kevin Fitchard
FCC chairman Kevin Martin has created quite a controversy with his comments over open access rules applying to the upcoming 700 MHz auction...
Confessions of a CSR
By: By Tim McElligott
Yes, I was a customer service rep. And the saddest story I ever heard--one which, in the middle of, I inappropriately burst into laughter--was told by a lonely, old woman who had me on the phone for 20 minutes before telling me the reason for her call...
Who’s complaining?
By: By Ed Gubbins
Reading the news this week that Sprint had discontinued service to customers who frequently called customer service, I couldn’t help but wonder what this augurs for the future...
Going rural
By: By Kevin Fitchard
It seems the large Tier 1 wireless operators have started taking notice of the hinterlands...
My killer apps
By: By Joan Engebretson
I don't consider myself a typical consumer. I like grapefruit juice but not orange juice. I like Manhattan clam chowder, German potato salad and almond (not lemon) poppyseed muffins...
The iPhone doesn’t fail to impress
By: By Kevin Fitchard
I had a chance to stop by the Apple Store on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue to check out the iPhone yesterday. My expectations were quite high, but I admit I was impressed...
Enforcing EDGE on the iPhone
By: By Kevin Fitchard
AT&T and Apple revealed that the starting plan for the new iPhone will come bundled with unlimited data usage for a mandatory $20 extra a month...
Selling in the Now
By: By Kevin Fitchard
There are a lot of lame ideas out there in wireless, and this industry has to cull out a lot of pointless applications and services. Therefore it’s always a pleasant surprise when a company comes up with an idea that’s fairly unique. The company I’m referring to is IQZone...
Primetime hits Sprint TV
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Sprint elected some time ago to eschew the MediaFLO TV services of its competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and now its mobile TV strategy is becoming much more clear. Sprint is skipping multicast TV in favor of on-demand unicast, signing a deal with ABC-Disney...
Confessions of Second Life novice
By: By Kevin Fitchard
I attended Sun Microsystems’ JavaOne conference today. Yes, yes, yes, big whoop. I know I don’t make a usual practice out of filling you in on my daily reporting activities, but this was a rather a unique experience: I attended it in Second Life...
The iPhone effect
By: By Kevin Fitchard
There's certainly been enough already written about Apple's new iPhone, and I hesitate to add more to the verbiage. But there is an important element to the iPhone that should warrant some interest...
Bee aware
By: By Dan O'Shea
My wife told me this morning that I need to get my priorities straight, and she wasn't talking about the usual stuff. She said she wants to know why cellular phones are killing honeybees and what our industry plans to do about...
Your content, my phone--will it work?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
There are a lot of new mobile content applications out there, and I--being a greedy SOB--want to try them all out. Luckily, developers are more than willing to let me do just that. The catch is that every content or applications developer out there wants to send me a new demo phone to try out their new-fangled app...
No winners in this patent fight
By: By Kevin Fitchard
After flexing their muscles in the preceding days, Qualcomm and Nokia have been quiet this week as the cross-licensing agreements that both of their wireless businesses depend on expired yesterday...
Cash and carrier
By: By Dan O'Shea
Mobile banking has finally arrived on U.S. shores, only it apparently took the same route as those Mexican fishermen who were lost at sea for many months before somehow ending up in New Zealand...
T-Mobile and Sony’s gaming experiment
By: By Kevin Fitchard
For all the talk of Sprint’s new WiMAX business model, rival carrier T-Mobile is paving the way for just the type of service Sprint is likely to launch over WiMAX using a much lowlier technology: Wi-Fi...
Taking on Apple
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Sprint is throwing down the glove. It may not get to sell the iPhone, but it may manage to steal a chunk of Apple’s huge digital music business. Yesterday the operator revealed that it would drop the price of an over-the-air full-track song download to 99 cents, the same price Apple charges for a PC download on iTunes...
Orlando bound
By: By Kevin Fitchard
It’s that time of year again. CTIA’s Wireless 2007 kicks off next week in Orlando, and I--as I imagine many of you shall be--will be running around in a frenzy for four straight days. If you see me rampaging across the show floor, please feel free to pass me a bottle of water or maybe a mint. I’m sure I’ll need both...
Changing faces
By: By Dan O’Shea
As network operators, particularly in the mobile industry, increasingly outsource management of their networks to major vendor partners, we're beginning to see interesting shifts in the telecom workforce...
The open network
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Skype has asked the FCC to open cellular networks to any device on the market, citing the Carterfone ruling of 1968 that created a market for home phones, answering machines and eventually the Internet modem...
The new Mobile ESPN
By: By Kevin Fitchard
This week I’d like to take the opportunity to share my own little conspiracy theory with you. My theory is about the rebirth of Mobile ESPN. I hear you laughing...
