Vlad Savov at The Verge: "Today's been rather a momentous day in the UK mobile arena, following local regulator Ofcom's approval of Everything Everywhere's plans to use existing spectrum to roll out LTE service early. Vodafone, O2 and Three have complained in unison against the market distortions that would result from one carrier having 4G while everyone else waits for an oft-delayed auction, but their biggest fear may yet remain unspoken: a de facto exclusive on the next iPhone."
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Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2011-05-12
It's a silly place.
I do have 3G where I live, well around my house. Other places in my village are suspect at best. Even worse where my wife's parents used to live there was no 3G, try surviving for hours with your in-laws without 3G. They recently moved, so I thought the 3G thing would be solved, but their new place is in a dead zone as well. Sometimes 3G appears, but then nothing happens and then 3G goes away again.
And why does my wife get upset if I stare at my phone all the time? The rest read folders and watch Carlo & Irene. Talk about mental torture.
Member since:2005-11-16
Member since:2012-08-01
Member since:2005-07-06
I doubt 4G is very much about increasing theoretical maximum speed for individual subscriber, as far as the telecoms are concerned... in their eyes, LTE has greater spectral efficiency - hence the ability to squeeze more users (each getting "acceptable" speed) in a given chunk of spectrum, particularly in dense locations.
Short-term, probably not that much of a difference for subscribers; not likely to disrupt anything (especially since the new iPhone will certainly work just fine on older networks, and probably use noticeably more battery on the newer)
Member since:2011-05-12
Any change is always bound to increase prices for us. LTE has a theoretical speed most if not all people will never get anyway.
Rumor has it the new iPhone's battery has only a slightly larger capacity. Unless they have some new generation LTE chips it may cut its operation time shorter than the iPhone 4/4S. I'd prefer it to be a bit longer.
In a way it's a kind of disgrace these cell phones, Apple and others, barely make it to the end of the day on their battery charge. I'd say make it 2 days and even that's crap. You can't use your phone without any power outlets nearby.
Member since:2005-11-13
Plus, for the carriers (in the US) that do have decent 4g coverage, they cap their data plans such that you can't do anything interesting with it anyway, so might as well stick with 3g/HSPA+.
Member since:2006-05-30
There aren't a "few" black holes. As a real world example - there is no 2G (let alone 3G) on the train mainline from the South Coast between Petersfield and Guildford. Not on O2, not on Vodafone and not on 3. Given O2 and Vodafone together are close to 50% of the UK carrier market, isn't that pretty pathetic? That's 40 minutes of a 1.5 hour journey on the mainline commuter backbone! From Guildford, the reception is spotty, and the closer you get to central London, the more bogged down it is and the slower the speed is. And yet we now have WiFi on the Tube? I'd LOL if it wasn't so depressing.
Member since:2011-05-12
Luxury.
Before I had an iPhone I used an iPod touch on the train. The stations had free WiFi, but often before I managed to make a working connection the train would start moving again. Around this time I started to dislike web apps a lot.
Recently I spend 4 days in Belgium in a resort. I found an open WiFi, but I never got an IP address. Tried it every day (while waiting in the snack bar queue). I assumed it was not for visitor use, but part of some system. When we left we could fill out a form grading all the resort services, this included use of the free WiFi(!).
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Member since:
2011-05-12
For me 3G is fast enough. I'd rather have 3G everywhere, there are still some black holes. As they couldn't fix these over the last few years I doubt 4G coverage would be better than 3G's.