Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 23 Sep 2013 21:48

The most important Windows RT multitasking capability still to be demonstrated is the ability to sell and make a profit at the same time. All else is maya.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 23 Sep 2013 21:53

Raja Bose wrote: BTW haven't they run GeekBench on Nexus? That doesn't have any bloat. How does it compare with iOS7, would be interesting to know and will be a much more fair comparison than Sammy etc. bloat on top.

It's in the Gizmodo article GD posted, but remember the Nexus 4 came out last year and is essentially the LG Optimus G in a different package. The Nexus 4 would be comparable to the iPhone5.

iPhone 5s: 2538
iPhone 5: 1278
Nexus 4: 1534
Sammy S4: 2077

A better comparison would be with the S4 GPE and iPhone 5s.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 23 Sep 2013 22:46

BLACKBERRY SOLD!

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 23 Sep 2013 23:13

The other problem with Android in the phone benchmarks is the huge hi-res screens that suck the life out of the GPU. The S4 has a full HD 1920x1080 resolution. They can't get iPhone level performance unless the GPU is a whole generation newer.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Sep 2013 01:12

I haven't seen the Note3 Geekbench 3 scores yet. We'll have to see.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Sep 2013 09:44

the problem with the android UI is its intricate icons and attempts to out-spec each other by HW vendors lacking a differentiator. its not a race anyone with mid-range hw can ever win. android does not look good on lower res screens. neither does IOS, but atleast apple controls the hw totally and uses 300ppi display. android is a goat market. any goat with one stripe claims to be a tiger-goat hybrid.

the soln would be a recast of android to run better on mid-range hw but that isnt happening so long as the sugary diet of carrier subsidized high end phones for $100 down is fed to american market. and vendors need to see some sense and shy off bloatware atleast for the mid range kit that doesnt handle this well.

android - goat market and nothing below 25K (nexus4) can run it smoothly
IOS - no product south of 30K
which leaves WP8 as the only option for me. fortunately I like the UI and overall looks and now a fully lumia family with me 720 and wife 820.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 24 Sep 2013 09:50

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-sh ... 130924.htm

As soon as Prem Watsa stepped down from Blackberry's board in August, speculation that he would launch a bid for the troubled smartphone maker started to swirl. Six weeks later, the man some call Canada's Warren Buffett has delivered, beginning a rescue project he once said could take four or five years.

BlackBerry's fortunes have only deteriorated since then, with the latest blow coming on Friday, when Blackberry said it would cut more than a third of its workforce as it retreats from the consumer market in favor of its traditional strength serving businesses and governments.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 24 Sep 2013 09:58

http://www.rediff.com/business/report/f ... 130924.htm

Following months of speculation of a buyout, BlackBerry has said that it has signed a letter of intent with a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited to buy the struggling Canadian smartphone maker for $4.7 billion.

BlackBerry has signed a letter of intent agreement under which a consortium to be led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has offered to acquire the company subject to due diligence, it said in a statement.

Fairfax already owns about 10 per cent of BlackBerry's common shares.

BlackBerry said the letter of intent contemplates a transaction in which BlackBerry shareholders would receive $9 in cash for each share they hold, in a transaction valued at approximately $4.7 billion, it added.

Once a dominant player in the handset market, BlackBerry has lost its market share to rivals like Apple (iPhone) and Google's Android-powered devices.

There were also reports which said the company was cutting workforce by 40 per cent to stem losses.

Earlier in the year, the company had launched its new operating system -- BB10 -- and rebranded itself as BlackBerry from the previous Research in Motion.

It had also launched two new devices -- Z10 and Q5 based on the new platform, which however failed to elicit much response from the users and did not do much to improve the performance of the company.

Last week, it announced the availability of its popular messaging app -- BlackBerry Messenger -- also known as BBM on the Android and Apple platform on September 21 and 22, respectively.

The move was seen by analysts as another attempt to revive the sagging fortunes of the firm.

However, the handset maker paused the global roll out of BBM on rival Android and iPhones, blaming the delay on issues caused by an unreleased version.

Its rival, Nokia, was also bought over by software giant Microsoft at the beginning of this month as part of its efforts to strengthen its position in the mobile devices space.

The Fairfax-led consortium would acquire for cash all of the outstanding shares of BlackBerry not held by Fairfax.

It intends to contribute the shares of BlackBerry it currently holds into the transaction.

The BlackBerry Board of Directors, acting on the recommendation of a special committee of the board of directors, have approved the terms of the LOI.

The consortium is seeking financing from BofA Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets and would acquire BlackBerry and take the company private subject to a number of conditions, including due diligence, negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement and customary regulatory approvals.

BlackBerry had formed the Special Committee, chaired by Director Tim Dattels, in August this year to review strategic alternatives for the company.

JP Morgan and Perella Weinberg are acting as financial advisors and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Torys LLP are acting as legal advisors.

Diligence is expected to be complete by November 4, 2013.

In this period, BlackBerry is free to scout for other opportunities but will have to pay a termination fee.

"The Special Committee is seeking the best available outcome for the Company's constituents, including for shareholders.

"Importantly, the go-shop process provides an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives superior to the present proposal from the Fairfax consortium," BlackBerry's Board of Directors Chair Barbara Stymiest said.

The firm is scheduled to announce its second quarter results on September 27.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 24 Sep 2013 10:04

Surface pro looks interesting, especially because it competes with price and form factor with Macbook air. Plus it can be used as a dockable tablet in a cinch. Pretty decent and solid product.

Not sure if Surface 2 with RT is of any use. Put RT in a 7inch tablet and then we can talk.

The issue with Android and benchmarking is that people prematurely moved to quad core processors. For single threaded tasks a quad core running at slower clock frequency will get its mush kicked by a dual core with higher clock frequency. Also things like bus/memory bandwidth, cache, GPU etc play a big part in these benchmarks. FruitCo tailors its hardware/software for this. Look at Moto X. Despite not being a spec champ CPU-wise, it kicks the mush of other higher spec'ed phones in some benchmarks.

Ofcourse, taking Qualcomm/Nvidia's offerings without much modification leads to lower part prices. Beyond a point, I think being a benchmark warrior is sacrificed for lower part costs. However I do think that when the multi-core madness ends (which by the way, is the son of higher-clock-speed madness promulgated by Intel. Anyone remember the Tejas processor? It had 40-50 stage pipeline, 7Ghz operating frequency with 128 instructions in flight at any given time), we will have processors that concentrate on GPU/Packet processor on chip, bigger caches, higher bus bandwidth, a low power sensor processing core ityadi. That is probably maybe only 2-3 years away.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Sep 2013 11:20

Anujan wrote: Ofcourse, taking Qualcomm/Nvidia's offerings without much modification leads to lower part prices.

Nvidia is a paki in this aspect...their reference design imposes a higher BOM cost than required. Still better than TI which would cause hapless board design abduls sleepless nights figuring out EMI issues.

a low power sensor processing core ityadi.

This feature is available right now from the usual suspects.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 24 Sep 2013 12:50

Per articles linked from fark, 9 million new iPhones were sold in 3 days and the higher end 5s model is outselling the 5c model by a factor of 3.4x in the US and 3.7x internationally (Japan's ratio is 5x)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 49134.html
http://www.localytics.com/blog/2013/iph ... g-weekend/

niran · Post by **niran** » 24 Sep 2013 13:27

the first thing you notice after updating to iOS7 is the absence elitist
3D look of the icons, it looks is 2Disque win 3.1 that was released in past century
some updates moi jailbreaked moi iPad mini and reinstalled iOS6xx

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Sep 2013 15:13

Marten wrote:Is it worth looking for a Surface RT or S2 over Nexus 10? Not sure about their current prices but want to get one for my brother and he usually has expensive tastes (of course this is related to my general lack of disposable income or chankianbanianess).

If you can wait a few weeks for the Nexus 10 2013 edition, then you could compare prices. It is suppose to be made by LG this time and not Samsung, or at least the rumors say so. The Surface 2 does not come with a cover or digitizer pen and if you need MS Office, then the price is not bad, but the idea of using MS Office on such a small surface area is unappealing. If playing games, browsing the internet and some general use, then an inexpensive tablet is the way to go. Physical longevity is going to be the same of all these devices.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 24 Sep 2013 15:21

what a fall from grace for BB. i remember this project manager hi-fi woman in our group coming to our team dinner..and letting the new BB out and it was passed around the table with oohs and aahs and envious comments..

himadri · Post by **himadri** » 24 Sep 2013 16:40

surface over nexus ? really ? I will suggest think a little longer. still there are no search function in the app store in win 8 . You just rely on serendipity to find your apps.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Sep 2013 17:45

xiaomi has not yet arrived here. gionee , zte and lenovo have I believe.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Sep 2013 20:52

Looks like the Moto X is getting good reviews out of the box and performs well for a mid-range spec phone. The problem is that it is priced like a high-end phone at $600+ USD. The developer edition, which is sold unlocked in a either a CDMA or GSM version, is $650+ USD.
The Geekbench 3 scores are low (~mid 1200s), but the UX is good, but if you have to spend that sort of money, then GPE of the S4 or HTC One may be a better choice.

++++++++++++++++++++++

It appears HTC is delayed on Android 4.3 for the One. At this time only the GPE has it. They promised end of September, but it doesn't appear that way. I suspect a year from now HTC will have been bought out by mainland PRC companies.

kmkraoind · Post by **kmkraoind** » 25 Sep 2013 14:29

Can bring a small smile.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 25 Sep 2013 15:47

himadri wrote:surface over nexus ? really ? I will suggest think a little longer. still there are no search function in the app store in win 8 . You just rely on serendipity to find your apps.

Search is always there. w8 search is always on and it searches based on where you are.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 25 Sep 2013 15:50

Anujan wrote:Surface pro looks interesting, especially because it competes with price and form factor with Macbook air. Plus it can be used as a dockable tablet in a cinch. Pretty decent and solid product.

Not sure if Surface 2 with RT is of any use. Put RT in a 7inch tablet and then we can talk.

This is in the right track of Microsoft strategy. As stated about 100 pages ago, MS is only trying to change the work environments and not baby toy environment. Comparisons are all like beauty which skin deep.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Sep 2013 19:42

^^^The only strategy MSFT has is another $1 billion write off, but hey they can afford it.

The good thing about the Surface Pro 2 is the digitizer and 1080p display. All else is passe.

anishns · Post by **anishns** » 25 Sep 2013 20:48

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Sep 2013 21:27

The DFW facility at Nokia in the late 90s and early 00s was producing so many phones there, it was incredible. I believe they were last making the 6000 series phones there for the US and overseas markets.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Sep 2013 22:06

Mort Walker wrote:^^^The only strategy MSFT has is another $1 billion write off, but hey they can afford it.

Tau ji, you are confusing Pro with RT.

Going by its peers performance in breaking into CE market, they didn't do as bad eh? Remember Oracle and Chacha's forays into making CE devices?

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 25 Sep 2013 22:36

massa carriers have gone completely paki with their data plans.

there's an unlimited data plan that says no tethering. how are they planning to enforce this? through disabled options in the device? can they be overcome with modding? or they have means to detect this in their network and stop traffic or send policy violation notices? what exactly they do with this?

the plans that allow tethering are so puny, 5GB with $10 for every GB extra. at 4G speed, i am bound to run out quick.

i am allowed to pick a data card separately and these plans are paki too. only sprint seems to offer unlimited plans and their coverage, from what i read in google, seems inadequate. is the coverage improving? att and vzon have more or less the same 5gb free and $10 bs on their hotspot device plans too..grrrrrr.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Sep 2013 23:29

^^^They enforce it by looking at the data traffic. If it is to mobile web-sites, then fine, otherwise not. Some browsers will give out information as well such as browser name and OS. If you use the Dolphin Browser, you can put it in various modes to emulate a different OS including mobile OSes. I use the Dolphin Browser to access iCloud for iPhone/iPad on my Nexus Android devices by emulation.

Sprint coverage is along major highways and roads. Their coverage is inferior even to T-Mobile. VZW and ATT have good LTE coverage, but these two companies are the most paki. I use a VZW hotspot and it has good coverage in relatively remote areas, but is a rip off.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 25 Sep 2013 23:41

In Android at least, you can enable tethering if you root the device.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 25 Sep 2013 23:46

BTW, if you want to unlock your (on contract) phone to use another SIM in it before the mandatory period expires, I know of one one way to do it. You basically need the Unlock code for your device, which AT&T gives you happily if whatever mandatory period they have has expired. If it hasn't, then call their International Customer care service and tell them that you are going to India for a few months and need to use an Indian SIM in your phone. They will give you the unlock code without complaints.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Sep 2013 23:55

nachiket wrote:In Android at least, you can enable tethering if you root the device.

Or if the carrier allows it like TMO does with various devices and/or if you have a Nexus device.

______________________________________

Getting TMO to unlock my devices has never been a problem.

negi · Post by **negi** » 26 Sep 2013 00:01

So Pakis have reduced the limit on tethering to just 5gb ? It used to be 8gb per month for ATT until 2012 and I am sure those who were old customers will be still having the unlimited package only thing is beyond a cap downloads will be throttled.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 26 Sep 2013 00:02

AFAIK, AT&T does not have an unlimited data plan anymore, except as part of the corporate plans.

negi · Post by **negi** » 26 Sep 2013 00:05

^ It was removed some time in 2010-2011 I guess but the way it works is if one is a old customer who subscribed to ATT service when it used to not have a cap on downloads then those customers continue to enjoy that without the hotspot ability however downloads beyond a limit are throttled (I know this because I was on 8gb plan (I moved from Tmo to ATT) and had hotspot enabled where as my colleague who was an old ATT connection did not have any limits but he could not use his iphunwa as a hotspot). My knowledge about this is dated though as I left Massa in Aug 2012.

Corporate thing is different for they charge them at a far higher rate.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 26 Sep 2013 00:10

^^^VZW had something like that as well, but if you upgraded a device (subsidized) through a VZW store, the grandfathered plan went away.

I wish these carriers would just give me a damn SIM card and pay for the voice & data like I do when in desh. Instead they invent more ways of being paki.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 26 Sep 2013 01:02

Apple Maps flaw results in drivers crossing airport runway

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 26 Sep 2013 01:29

i can understand if they give certain GB at 4G and then make it 3G or a throttled speed on 4G.

data plan is the cash cow to be milked in every which way.

My fear is running into overage and some idle fellow at HQ analysing usage and sending mails saying why should company pay for you browsing BRF and other non-productive activities which are a violation of blah blah blah..

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 26 Sep 2013 01:33

Mort Walker wrote:^^^They enforce it by looking at the data traffic. If it is to mobile web-sites, then fine, otherwise not. Some browsers will give out information as well such as browser name and OS. If you use the Dolphin Browser, you can put it in various modes to emulate a different OS including mobile OSes. I use the Dolphin Browser to access iCloud for iPhone/iPad on my Nexus Android devices by emulation.

Sprint coverage is along major highways and roads. Their coverage is inferior even to T-Mobile. VZW and ATT have good LTE coverage, but these two companies are the most paki. I use a VZW hotspot and it has good coverage in relatively remote areas, but is a rip off.

VZW has most coverage. but i am not too keen on coverage. the hotspot is a backup for some after hours work at the hotel, airport travel etc. But if I am bored and want to dld some tamil movie, I would run over the 5GB limit and run into extra charges, and if that triggers usage analysis, i would be in trouble.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 26 Sep 2013 01:37

^^Most hotels and airports will have WiFi, so you won't need a hotspot.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 26 Sep 2013 01:42

^^^Yeah, but if you want to watch Tamil blue phillums, then you need your own hotspot.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 26 Sep 2013 02:07

so Mort, you egg-spurt advice is no Sprint hotspot? I will stick to vzw for hotspot and att for device, then.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 26 Sep 2013 02:10

Mort Walker wrote:^^^Yeah, but if you want to watch Tamil blue phillums, then you need your own hotspot.

mallu bfs are interesting... every auntie in there seems to be uh "healthy"
we used to watch as a nanha in undergrad in desh.