Digital Zone 214: iPain

Posted by Patrick Wiscombe on June 21, 2010 under Tech Podcasts | Be the First to Comment

In this edition of the Digital Zone, we talked about:

iPhone pre-orders wreak havoc
Verizon’s new Droid X smartphone
Verizon’s considering tiered data pricing
Verizon to stop offering FiOS contracts
Connecticut goes after Google
Facebook financials
Pew’s texting and driving survey data
Microsoft enhancing Bing results
Google in talks with Dell
Barnes & Noble drop Nook price

More than 600,000 iPhone 4s were sold on the first day of pre-orders last week. The volume was so great that AT&T had to suspend its online sales and Apple had to delay ship dates because Apple is having a difficult time getting enough touchscreens to meet demand. Apple has had to cut by 50 percent the number of iPhones it can deliver monthly from the original estimate of four million. LG Display Company, Apple’s supplier, is hoping to have the capacity to meet demand by late summer. The iPhone 4 is scheduled to go on sale on June 24 and in-person pre-orders are being accepted at brick-and-mortar Apple and AT&T stores, Radio Shack, Best Buy, and some Wal-Marts. Apple said it is the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day. Apple noted that “many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration.” AT&T reported that its pre-order sales were 1,000 percent more than pre-orders for the iPhone 3GS in 2009. Late last week, Apple said it will ship iPhones purchased through pre-orders by July 2 instead of the original date of June 24, but they’re now saying July 14. Plus, there were reports that visitors to the AT&T site were seeing other customers’ accounts during the iPhone 4 pre-order process and there were reports that, in some cases, customer information was accepted, but no pre-order was completed. AT&T said it has not been able to duplicate the problems and that, in any case, revealed information did not include Social Security numbers, credit-card information, or call-detail records. Analysts have put a “buy” rating on Apple’s stock and expect the stock to start trading near $340 a share. Last week the stock reached an all-time high of $272.90

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by LegalZoom.com.
Enter discount code DIGITAL at checkout.

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Verizon Wireless announced that their new Droid X smartphone is shipping on June 23. According to Verizon’s site, the Droid X has a 4.3-inch screen, HDMI output and a “720p display” and will run Adobe Flash 10.1. According to Engadget, the device has an 854-by-480 screen, an 8-megapixel camera and no physical keyboard.

Toshiba said they now have a chip that can store 128 gigabytes of memory, for use in smartphones, tablet PCs and digital video cameras. Mass production will start in October 2010 and said they’ll also offer a 64GB chip too.

Verizon Wireless is considering a tiered 4G pricing plan based on data usage according to the company’s chief financial officer and said they won’t offer a “totally unlimited, flat rate.” The Verizon spokesperson said the pricing changes don’t pertain to 3G users for the foreseeable future. Verizon said they’re expecting an “explosion of data traffic” from new smartphones.

Verizon is offering its FiOS television and broadband Internet package to new customers without a long-term contract. Verizon had previously charged $20 more per month for the no-contract service. Now, new FiOS customers will be able to get contract-free service at the regular price of $99 per month, plus taxes and fees. Existing customers, however, will still be subject to the contracts — and to termination fees for ending the service early. Verizon is offering a two-year price guarantee for new customers who sign contracts anyway, with 30 days to cancel without penalties. For month-to-month customers, the price will be locked for only the first year.

Connecticut’s attorney general will lead a multi-state probe of whether Google broke laws when it collected personal data off wireless networks around the world, which Google has said was inadvertent. In May, Google said its cars photographing streets around the world have for years accidentally collected personal data — which a security expert said at the time could have included email messages and passwords — sent by consumers over wireless networks. “It was a mistake for us to include code in our software that collected payload data, but we believe we did nothing illegal. We’re working with the relevant authorities to answer their questions and concerns,” said Christine Chen, a Google spokesperson. The company says it uses the location of Wi-Fi networks to enhance location-based services on smart phones.

Facebook’s financial performance is stronger than previously believed, according to two sources familiar with Facebook’s situation and said the company earned a solid net profit, in the tens of millions of dollars, last year. The two sources said revenue in 2009 was $700 million to $800 million. The company announced they had 150 million users in January 2009 and had finished the year with 350 million users. AT&T Inc, Ford Motor Co and Research in Motion all advertised on Facebook during the first four months of 2010, according to comScore.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by Cliphanger.

The perfect accessory for all cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and MP3 players.

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A study released Friday by The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project says adults and teenagers are equally likely to have texted while driving. And adults are more likely to have chatted on their phones while driving. The study found that 47 percent of adults who text reported sending or reading texts while behind the wheel. In a 2009 Pew study, a lower number — 34 percent — of 16- and 17-year-olds who send texts said that they did that while driving. The study also found that adults are much more likely to chat on their phones while driving: 75 percent of adults with mobile phones said they talked and drove. Fifty-two percent of teenagers with cell phones said they did so in last year’s study. The Pew study didn’t take into account that some drivers may be using handsfree devices such as Bluetooth headsets when they talk and drive. The study said that 17 percent of adults who have cell phones reported walking into other people or things because they were so busy using their phones to text or chat.

Microsoft will unveil new features next week to enhance the Bing search engine’s capabilities to search for entertainment-related content, specifically in areas such as music, television, movies and online games. The goal is to significantly beef up Bing’s handling of entertainment-related queries according to people familiar with the plans. For example, TV search results will get enhanced with programming listings and with the ability to stream episodes from the search engine user interface. Music searches will return richer and more extensive information about artists, concerts and songs, including lyrics, and a music player will let users play back tunes on Bing and users will also get options to purchase music.

Talks are under way between Google and Dell to bring Chrome OS to Dell’s computer lineup. Google recently announced that Chrome OS devices would be launched at some point between the fall and the end of the year.

Barnes & Noble cut the price on its original Nook e-reader and will sell it for less than Amazon’s Kindle. Plus, they’ll offer a lower-price Nook with a Wi-Fi connection. Nook Wi-Fi is available now for $149 and is lowering the price of the original Nook, which has both 3G and Wi-Fi, from $259 to $199.

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PODCAST SPONSOR: The Digital Zone is sponsored by Bluehost.

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