Summer is winding down and school is back in session. Where has the summer gone?  In this episode we talk about new developments with Web OS, the latest Apple press conference and craig gives his hands-on review of the new BlackBerry Torch.  Finally, we talk about how the new HD phone calls are rolling out in the UK and plead with our US carriers for a wide and quick adoption.

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BlackBerry has made security its’ primary selling point for many years and has done quite well as a result. With clients including many of the Fortune 500 companies and government’s the world over, you have to know that this is something it’s clients take seriously too.  The real question here is, “What kind of security risk will these companies have to face as a result of this agreement?”

As I’ve said, the details of the agreement are somewhat sketchy, and from what I understand of the BlackBerry infrastructure,  I have to think that this agreement isn’t as far-reaching as it might seem. Reports don’t seem to focus on email messages, but instead on the BlackBerry Messenger service.

Email messages are encrypted end-to-end so that only the server inside the company data center and the handheld have keys to decrypt it. BlackBerry Messenger however does not do this. By necessity, it can’t! In order to route messages to another user’s device, it must be decrypted in the middle and routed to the other user.

Assuming this is true, the security implications aren’t as great as people might think. BlackBerry Messenger was always an add-on product and isn’t the main reason people buy a BlackBerry. Furthermore, it was never promised to be secure.  However, the precedence being set is not good. It’s obvious that soon, every nation will be demanding similar treatment. Not only can this apply to BlackBerry, but this example can be applied to nearly every software product that allows encrypted communication, including Skype and hundreds of other products.

But this is also the Achilles heel of the deal. Now that it’s clear that BlackBerry Messenger isn’t secure, it won’t be long before the masses change habits and start using another product that is secure.  If that one gets popular enough that the government decides to strong-arm a similar deal, the people will just change again. The bottom line here is that this is just another step in the eternal cat-and-mouse game they have been playing since the start of time. The real victim here is the BlackBerry Messenger platform.

iPhone 4 - FaceTime

You’ve experienced the hype, you’ve seen the long lines outside Apple and AT&T stores, but is the iPhone 4 worth it?  Lets take a look.

Retina Display

The Retina display on the new iPhone 4 really is all its cracked up to be.  If you use an iPhone 3GS, a current model BlackBerry, or other Smartphone like an Android or Palm webOS phone, you will be struck by this display’s super sharp picture.  At 960 pixels by 640 pixels, packed into a 3.5” (measured diagonally) area it delivers amazing images, graphics, and video. The resolution is the highest on any Smartphone right now but it’s also the size of each pixel.  The Retina display’s pixels are 78 microns (0.07 millimeters) in size.

1GHz CPU

The iPhone 4 has a 1GHz A4 processor.  There isn’t much to say about it other than its fast and make the iPhone very snappy.

Cameras

The iPhone 4 has 2 cameras.  One front facing camera that is at VGA resolution, and a rear-facing camera that is 5 megapixels.

The amazing thing about the rear-facing camera is that it uses a backside illumination sensor which allows the camera to pick up more light.  This translates into much sharper pictures, even in low-light situations where traditional cell phone cameras fail miserably.  The camera also includes an LED flash.  I have really been amazed by the pictures I’ve taken on my iPhone 4 compared with pictures taken on my Google Nexus One and Motorola Droid which also have 5 megapixel cameras.

Both cameras can be used for FaceTime video chat, to take pictures, and to record video.

FaceTime

I was pleasantly surprised by FaceTime.  I have had about 5 video chats via FaceTime and each time the call was flawless, and the video and audio quality were outstanding.  FaceTime does not use any of your plan minutes since it uses Voice over IP (VoIP) which is essentially data.  Today FaceTime only works when your iPhone 4 is associated with a WiFi network, but next year the cell phone providers may allow FaceTime over 3G.

FaceTime uses industry standard protocols like SIP and STUN to setup and conduct calls.  This should allow developers to write version of FaceTime that work on other phones and desktop computers.  I’m looking forward to that.

Some say that Apple wasn’t first to the game with video chat, and that the EVO 4G already has a front-facing camera and you can use the QIK application for chat, but it seems that people are having a lot of issues with this application.  Lots of frozen video, digitized audio, and general flakiness. Not to mention that you have to download and install the QIK chat application yourself which is OK for tech-savvy, but maybe daunting for the regular consumer.  The iPhone comes preloaded with FaceTime and it just works.

Multitasking

Apple was criticized for not allowing the iPhone’s 3^rd party applications to multitask (or keep running in the background).  The iPhone’s pre-loaded applications (like Mail) already multitask.

Apple came up with multitasking that doesn’t suck battery life out of your phone which is the case with Android, webOS, and other Smartphones on the market today.  Even the BlackBerry, which has had multitasking since the beginning 10 years ago, has major performance issues with it.

On the iPhone 4 (and indeed on the iPhone 3GS if you upgrade the operating system to iOS4) any application can run the following in the background:

• Play audio (meaning you can continue to listen to audio from one application while using other applications). Without switching to the application you can also interact with the audio.
  • The iPod application has always allowed this on all versions of the iPhone, this new feature is for 3rd party applications.
• Listen for incoming VoIP calls.  This means that applications that you run on your iPhone that use VoIP (like Skype for example) can keep listening for incoming calls and give you the ability to answer them.
• Utilize the GPS radio.  This means that applications that use GPS for navigation will be able to continue giving your directions while you are using other applications.
• Push notifications to you on the screen.  This means that applications that are running in the background can alert you.  This would mean sports scores, weather alerts, new alerts, etc.
• Complete tasks.  This allows applications to complete a task you asked them to do before you switched to another application.  So for example if you started uploading a picture to Facebook, then switched to use Skype, the picture upload would complete in the background.

To switch between applications on the iPhone 4 (or iPhone 3GS running iOS4), double-click the home button.  The screen that slides up shows all running applications.  It also shows any application controls like the Pandora play/pause/jump buttons. You can also forcefully close an application by touching and holding on its icon.

This feature is very impressive and really does preserve the battery life.  This is in stark contrast to Android, webOS, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile where the more applications you have running, the quicker the battery drains.

HD Video Recording

The iPhone 4 records 720P HD video.  Combined with its amazing camera that lets in more light, the videos turn out looking great.  Even more amazing is for $4.99 you can purchased iMovie for the iPhone and edit and produce a movie right on your iPhone. By contrast most Smartphones record very low resolution video which is OK for uploading to YouTube or sending via MMS.  While the iPhone 4 records 720P HD video, it will downsize it for MMS and YouTube.

Signal Issues

I have been able to reproduce the signal issue.  I have to consciously do it because I am right handed and rest my phones on my pinkie.  To reproduce the issue all I have to do is hold the iPhone 4 in my left hand and make sure the meaty part of my palm covers the bottom left of the phone. WIthin 10 seconds or so the signal strength drops from 5 bars to 1 bar.  I can tell that the data speeds drop to nothing or very slow.

I cannot reproduce this effect all the time though.  For example, sometimes when I’m outside and grip the iPhone 4 in the “death grip” and the bars stay at 5.  They refuse to drop.  This leads me to believe that this only happens under certain conditions, but what those conditions are I don’t know.  For me personally this “death grip” isn’t an issue because as I said I hold the phone in my right hand, and don’t typically cover the bottom left.  When I’m driving I use my car’s built-in Bluetooth in-dash speakerphone, and otherwise use speakerphone while its resting on the table.  Even holding it to talk doesn’t affect me because of my right handed usage.

I think that Apple needs to address this though.  Its becoming a bit of a PR nightmare for them.  I’m quite sure that Apple’s engineers carefully considered their decision to move the antennas to the outside of the phone and all the issues that come along with that, so in my mind this is some kind of manufacturing mistake, or a radio software bug.

Out of interest, I am able to reproduce the same issue by holding my old iPhone 3GS, but on the bottom right instead.  It has been upgrade to iOS4 and I never tried this before so I cannot conclusively say whether it only started happening once I upgraded.

Conclusion

I try and use as many Smartphones as I can get my hands on.  I write many of the books in QUE’s “My” series and so I get to use each Smartphone intimately.  Before 2007, cell phones in general were really boring.  Smartphones were annoying to use because they required a stylus.

In 2007 Apple changed the playing field with the first iPhone.  All everyone has been doing since then is playing catch up.  In 2010, they haven’t caught up just yet.  The iPhone 4 has really stepped up the game again with an outstanding camera, HD video recording, retina display, multitasking that doesn’t kill your battery, and built-in video chat.  If you are in the market for a new Smartphone, I recommend picking up an iPhone 4.

In the world of telecommunications including mobile communications, ESD (Electro Static Discharge) issue is very important. ESD could kill a half a million dollars worth of circuit packs in a heart beat. A wrist wrap, foot-straps or an anti-static floor is required when handling sensitive electronics.

This includes the need to shield the sensitive electronics of a mobile phone. Insulation has to be placed between the user and the cell phone in order to ensure the isolation of a potentially hazardous energy from damaging the highly sensitive electronics inside a cell phone. I can go deeper on the actual molecular or even on electron level effect of an unwanted electronic charge but that would be too nerdy. Bottom line is that it could potentially disarray the logical states of the circuits thus throwing off the circuits into a crazy state damaging the programming codes encoded inside.

So you might ask how come iPhone 4’s problem occurs only when an attempted voice or data call is initiated. When a call is being initiated, higher amount energy is being transferred between the cell site and the cell phone. This energy is called RF (Radio Frequency) signal. Most if not all cell phone manufacturers employs an RF Isolation to alleviate the constant bombardment of RF signal to the cell phone. RF Isolation is the protection of sensitive electronics from external RF electromagnetic radiation or an ESD by enclosing it with a conducting material. When a finger or a part of palm is near or very close to where the supposed internal antenna of the iPhone is physically located (right side of iPhone 4), a flux is generated as two conducting and highly charged body of matter is put right close to each other. A flux therefore generates enough amount of electromagnetic radiation that seems to affect the received RF signal. In telecom lingo, this phenomenon increases the signal to noise ratio affecting the amount of energy that the phone can work with. Signal attenuation follows. Thus, signal reception deteriorates.

A lot of factors can cause the signal attenuation due to ESD. Static charges are stored in your body based on different factors such as the type of clothing you wear, environment with a lot of electrical circuits, walking in a certain way, humidity or contact with certain types of objects. Both ESD and electromagnetic radiation cause by being close to the antenna are considered to be signal noise and the RF signal from the cell site are considered cell signal. If you increase your proximity to the cell site, you increase your signal strength. For as long as the ESD and electromagnetic radiation are kept to a minimum, the RF signal from the cell site will overpower the noise generated by ESD or your hand. So two main factors come to play – how much ESD is in your body and your phone’s signal strength. This explains the different effects to different people.

Apple’s attempt to fix this by a software patch will not have any real effect on the real problem which is clearly a signal attenuation degrading both the ability to make voice and data calls. Now, it can fix the software issue on the display bars of truly reflecting the signal received level by the patch but would be hard-pressed to fix something that is clearly a circuit design problem. I don’t know if they can manipulate the signal level or employ a certain software filter to reduce the effect of a human grip. But the clear indication is that one of the viable solutions they can make at this point is to insulate the antenna from your dirty fingers or palm by a non-conductive material.

Until then, as a certified iPhone Jedi, are you willing to part with your new light saber (iPhone 4) for an RMA? Or will Apple just send a revised iPhone 4 for free as a replacement? Interesting.

Sometime later, I had read there were rumors that only five hundred devices have been sold as blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes sought to find someone who actually bought one. Do you know anyone who has purchased one? I can’t say I’ve ever seen one even being used in a crowd. I can only assume that this was not far from the truth because the announcement to kill the line seemed to be a surprise to even the Kin team. Looks like Microsoft may have goofed on this, but they apparently understand the famous words of Kenny Rogers. “You gotta know when you hold ‘em. You gotta know when to fold ‘em.”

Bloggers all over the blog-0-sphere have been speculating about why the product failed to take off, when it seemed to be a good idea at the time. I think this one is mostly about execution and pricing. The cloud services required to use the device were pricey to say the least. Teens and Tweens don’t have their own paycheck, so it’s pretty clear that moms and dads everywhere said no to those extra charges on the cell phone bill.  The bottom line is that the Kin was never meant to be a smart-phone, but the data pricing tied to it was the same as a smart-phone. If you are going to pay the same data price, you might as well get a real feature-rich smart-phone.

It seems that some of the Kin features will be available for the Windows Phone 7 line though as the entire Kin product team has been folded into the Windows Phone 7 team. Will this help or hurt Windows Phone 7?

One tradition that never gets old is somehow destroying a brand new device once it’s available. This time Engadget did it in the name of science to test out that new harder-than-plastic glass screen.  Don’t worry, it will still break.

Something that is very interesting and possibly a big design flaw are reports that using the phone in your left hand is causing calls to be dropped! The iPhone4 is using a new design for the antennas which are built into the exterior of device. Both antennas are there and are separated by small plastic spacers to keep them from touching. Apparently some users are reporting that when you hold the phone with your left hand so that your palm is touching both the WiFi and Cellular antennas, it can cause calls to be dropped. Ruh Roh, Ruggy! Details are sketchy, but if this is happening to you, you might want to invest in a nice rubberized sleeve and cover up that oh-so-stylish chrome trim.

This photo rocks. Credits to Engadget.

Well, guess what iPhone fanboys? iPhone 4 can fix that problem right away. Or maybe not too soon yet. Today, the number of iPad apps crossed the 10,000 mark. But the real benchmark is not the iPad apps but the ability of app developers to maximize the display real estate of the new iPhone 4. With iPhone 4’s 960×640 (326ppi), it can almost fill iPad’s 1024×768 (132ppi). That mean’s your iPhone 4’s apps can run and be looking good on the iPad without pixelitis (a disease associated with your display when apps are bloated from a low resolution to a high resolution).

As for your weekly dose of the good news – bad news tandem, it is reported that the iPhone 4 will support iPad’s VGA video output cable for delivering 1024×768 resolution. Bad news is – not through HDMI. That means, that 720p HD video that you will shoot when Spain plays the USA in the finals of World Cup 2010 (Hey, nothing with dreaming, right?) could not be played on a projector straight from your iPhone 4. What a bummer !

Okay, here’s the gist and my take on what’s new on Apple’s latest gadget:

- Netflix, iBook, iMovie being released. Apps have no freedom, they will run on any iPhone hardware (I hope so!). For the iMovie editing app, I’m just wondering how much time you’re gonna spend editing your whole European trip on your iPhone?
- 24% thinner. Ok, you got me on this, I have smaller hands. But if this is the only reason why I’m buying a new phone, I’d rather contact Luke Skywalker because he got a pretty nifty hand customized for him the last time I checked.

- 5 megapixels with LED Flash. 4 years ago, I bought my wife a simple LG phone that has a flash. 4 years ago. I thought Apple is supposed to be ahead of the game. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Anyhow, I love my Olympus DSLR and I don’t think I’ll trade optical crispness than iPhone’s LED flash.
- Scratch Resistant. A screen film costs like a dime a piece nowadays. It surely did protect my screen from scratches. Nice try, Apple!
- Retina Display, 326 ppi, 960 x 640 (4 times resolution than iPhone 3G), IPS technology. Now, we’re talking. This is really tempting. HD resolution. Let me think.
- A4 processor. Sweet. Now, I can run my PERL scripts. Or not.
- Multitasking. Cool. If this on iOS 4.0 then why bother buying the iPhone 4 when you can just upgrade your phone to the new OS load?
- Unified Mail, Bing search engine. This is nice too but again since it is on iOS 4.0, I might be able to have the same features on my old iPhone 3G.
- 720p HD Video recording. This one is a very handy feature to have especially if you haven’t bought any HD video cam yet. Well the thing is I have and it is a 1080p, lighter than the iPhone video cam. I am no Spielberg, so a high resolution but simple video cam is good enough for me.
- iAd. I hate this. I am no developer so this will just add delay to my app usage.
- 40% more Battery Life. I admit my battery on my iPhone 3G drains as much as the BP and the government’s alibi in not fixing the oil leak fast enough but the additional battery pack as an accessory does the trick every time.
- FaceTime Video Call. The seemingly Holy Grail of the whole event. Just curious, how is this different from what Skype and Fring is trying to do? Of course, this latest cool feature will not work on iPhone 3G. But if it also doesn’t work on AT&T’s 3G network and is purely dependent on WiFi, can you really call this a video call? In my day job, I have worked extensively on being able to deliver video calls to carriers and I know that a 2-way video call over 3G is a tried and tested technology. For this reason, if AT&T is not ready to take on video calls for the iPhone then it’s a shame because the rest of the world has been using video calls for quiet sometime now.

For me, there were 3 highlights in the WWDC 2010 event. First is the awesome Retina Display. Second is the not-so-impressive FaceTime Video Call. The Third is the face of Steve Jobs when he failed to open the NYT on his iPhone 4 (opppss!).

My biggest disappointments so far as far as the new iPhone 4 is concerned are:

1. The storage flavors were still the same with iPhone 3GS, a 16GB(199$) and a 32GB(299$) with an AT&T contract.
2. No offerings for an unlocked version. AT&T’s network growth is moving like a brontosaurus – very slow. I would like to keep my options when it comes to the carriers.
3. A dashboard type functionality where you can check statuses, updates, weather info, flight infos, scores, etc on a press of a button or a gesture.

My phone has been acting weird for the last few months. When calls are up, you can only hear the person on the other line if you are using speakerphone or the Bluetooth. I think I need a new phone. What do you think? Hmm, Nah, I’ll wait.

The launch of the HTC EVO has turned out to be Sprint’s biggest launch ever; a designation previously held by the Palm Pre. Let’s hope that the EVO doesn’t follow in the Pre’s tracks! There is no reason that I can see to think that might happen though. HTC is the established industry leader for smartphone manufactures currently and, compared to Palm’s dubious future at the time of the Pre’s release, HTC’s rock solid position and future probably has a lot to do with the high demand! Of course 4G doesn’t hurt either!

So now the horse is on the track and Sprint is back in the race. Time will tell whether they will be able to make up ground and get back into the wireless carrier race.  The big question is whether the 4G network will be able to handle the strain of  all these new users and whether the capacity is there. AT&T often gets beat up over network capacity by their iPhone and iPad users. It won’t be hard for Sprint to become everyone’s favorite whipping boy if they can’t keep the bytes flowing quickly.