[Mobilepartners] User Group Meeting & External News

[Andrew Yu]

Happy New Year!

There will be a Mobile Partners User Group meeting next Friday (1/19) 2pm at N42 Demo Center. 

Cingular (the same carrier that will be launching iPhone in June) will have a presentation for us on their new mobile devices, service offerings, etc. If you cannot make it to the meeting and have questions for Cingular, please email me (andrewyu at mit.edu) and I will try to get answers for you. Snacks and refreshments will be provided compliments of Cingular.

We will also have Chris Murphy from IS&T go over wireless data cards for PC's and Mac's that might be of interest to you. Chris has been testing various cards from Verizon, Sprint, and Cingular. He will be sharing his findings and answer questions.

Now for the external news:

1. Apple iPhone:
As most of you have undoubtedly heard, Steve Jobs finally unveiled iPhone yesterday. Although it won't be officially available till June, 2007, iPhone is already starting to shake up the smartphone/pda market.

You can get all the details from various news sources (please see below for links), so I won't get into too much detail, but here are some things that stands out for users at MIT:

a. Mac OS X: iPhone is said to be running Mac OS X. This introduces Mac OS X as a new mobile device platform that will impact the other players (Palm OS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian). 

b. Safari web browser: In conjunction with wi-fi, browsing the web (not just mobile websites) with Safari will be a huge plus for those mobile device users.

c. Email: If the built-in IMAP/POP email client may be as solid as Apple Mail application on Mac OS X, the user experience should exceed the other platforms.

d. Minor Concerns/Things to Consider:
- EDGE (as opposed to HSDPA): EDGE typically averages 100kbps (vs 600kbps+ for HSDPA), but built-in wi-fi might be good enough for most users on campus.
- Input Method: Pressing keys on touch screen may not be preferred by some users (everyone else has been following the BlackBerry's lead with the plastic keyboard), but Apple looks like it has addressed this issue. Too early to judge without having used it.
- Other Software: As with any new software platform, initially iPhone may not offer as many third-party software as other platforms. It will be interesting to see what other software might be bundled and how quickly software developers start releasing applications for iPhone.
- Battery Life: iPhone is supposed to last for 5 hours of talk time, which is on par with other smartphone devices. (How did they do that with such a thin form factor!? )
- Pricing: Initial price of $499 with 2 year contract (Cingular only) for 4GB model is more expensive (but not too far off) compared with other smartphone devices.

Overall, iPhone appears to be a winner. Just can't wait till we get our hands on it.

External Links:
Apple: http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Treo 680 vs. iPhone: http://blog.treonauts.com/2007/01/palm_treo_680_v.html

2. Other than iPhone News:

- Cingular announced the availability of Palm Treo 750 (Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC, HSDPA high-speed data)
[Link: http://tinyurl.com/yz5rt4]

- Sprint and Verizon announced Motorola Q ("Pro") (Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone, EV-DO high-speed data) with software upgrade that mainly addresses battery life issue of the original Q.
[Link: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12760_7-9674974-5.html?tag=blog]

- More new device announcements (CNET) from Consumer Electronic Show:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8300-12760_7-5.html?categoryId=2034&tag=lnav

Enjoy!

Andrew

_______________________________________
Andrew J. Yu
Mobile Devices Platform Coordinator
Software Release Team
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building W92-140B
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Phone: 617-324-8985
Fax: 617-258-8736
Email: AndrewYu at mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/swrt