Matt Kapko

Did you feel that? A little before noon today an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale rolled through Southern California and sent much of the region’s wireless infrastructure on the fritz immediately after. Countless reports indicate wireless networks experienced temporary outages due to network congestion for at least 90 minutes following the rattler. Some calls would go through while others would drop uneventfully as disruptions continued throughout the area for much of the lunch hour. AT&T spokesman Wes Warnock told us the carrier experienced heavy network congestion immediately after the earthquake, which is to be expected. The company hasn’t discovered any damage to its wireless or wireline networks as a result of the earthquake.

Due to the overloaded networks, customers reported busy signals, error messages or just silence when they tried making a call, LA Times reports. The newspaper’s web site went down due to heavy traffic at one point as well. Sprint said it saw an 800 percent increase over normal call volume for at least 30 minutes following the quake. Verizon Wireless said its calls jumped even 40 percent higher than it predicts for during disasters.

Skyfire threw another hat in the mobile browser ring recently with the launch of its second private beta program. So far the new beta has been pretty limited in reach, but a stroke of luck came my way last Thursday during a break at MobileBeat 2008. That’s when I managed to win an HTC Tilt in a text-in-to-win promotion from the makers of the new mobile browser out of Mountain View, Calif. Within a minute of texting the company’s name to a short code I got a reply telling me a new device running the mobile browser’s second beta was waiting for me.
(published in mocoNews.net)

I’ve been wanting to get some hands-on time with the mobile browser that’s been making lots of promises of late and after a couple days of use, I’m thoroughly impressed. Web pages are loading faster than they would on Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari. Safari comes closest however. The support for Java, Flash and Ajax makes browsing even more PC-like than competing mobile browsers. I checked out a few sites that typically have some problems on Opera, for example, but they’re working fine on Skyfire. Video streams clearly on YouTube although I had some video framing issues when I zoomed in. The browser’s intuitiveness and ease of use is on par with Safari – simple clicks and drags do exactly what you expect them to, zoom and move the page in a smoother fashion. I’ve only used Skyfire on a Windows Mobile touchscreen device, but look forward to installing it on a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Series60 device soon. The company has raised $17.8 million in venture capital thus far, but it’s still a tough ring its entering and one that’s expected to get even more crowded with the likes of Android in the coming. Still, the capabilities and full web support Skyfire offers are a much needed and welcome addition.

The iPhone 3G is not for me. I’ve returned mine exactly two weeks after I committed a Friday and Saturday morning to buy one. Good thing I was on assignment. No one likes wasting time in line, especially ones that move slow due to poor planning. I can’t deny how remarkable it is to browse the internet and use those cool applications, but as a phone and communications device the iPhone leaves me wanting more. My biggest gripe – battery life. I couldn’t get through half a normal day before I got the red battery alert. It’s easy to keep it plugged into your PC to charge at the desk during the day, but anytime I went “mobile” I did so with hesitation. The iPhone battery doesn’t last as long as the comparable 3G devices running on Symbian, Windows Mobile and other platforms. I didn’t notice much improvement when I kept Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off either.
(published at mocoNews.net)

My typical day consists of mail via an Exchange server and some voice calls – that’s the gist of it. I used the applications and played some games every now and then (they lose their initial draw after a couple days), but never played music on the iPhone 3G and rarely played video. Then, there were the dropped calls due to a still seemingly weak cellular radio that also affected the first iPhone. Low-end 3G feature phones would hold a strong signal while the iPhone sat on the edge between a low signal and “no service.” Hand-off between 3G and 2G seemed to strain the device unrelentingly.

Still, I think Apple’s got the most impressive mobile gaming platform around. It’s casual and fun for just about anyone. Moreover, it’s opened up an entirely new development arena that’s gotten immediate interest from big, small and venture capital. Everyone’s talking about the iPhone, thinking about the iPhone and watching the iPhone. In fact, so much so, I can’t give it up. I may have returned the iPhone 3G because it doesn’t meet my needs as a phone and email device, but I can’t say goodbye to everything the platform does best. I’ll be getting an iPod Touch for that very reason soon. I want that web browser, music and video player and all those games and applications – Wi-Fi connectivity will just have to suffice. For phone calls and email on the move, I will go another way.

What experiences are the rest of you having? Has anyone else returned their iPhone 3G?

After coming up empty handed last Friday, I returned to an AT&T (NYSE: T) store early Saturday morning to give it another go. By 8:30 a.m. there was a line of about 25 strong waiting for their chance to shell out cash in this down economy for the new iPhone. Activation issues kept sales at a standstill for hours as the line moved at glacial speed. I was already kicking myself for not grabbing the first spot in line at 7:30 a.m. when I first drove by, but I didn’t want to be the only geek waiting out front when AT&T opened its doors. There’s strength in numbers and I was determined to not go through this alone. On Friday, the more expensive 16 gigabit models were the first to sell, leaving those further back in line with the choice of getting the 8 gigabit model or the white 16 gigabit model. On Saturday, sales went the other way. After about 15 people got through the store, an AT&T manager told us the 8 gigabit model was sold out for the day. I finally got inside around 11 a.m. and after a few activation holdups, the representative was able to get my iPhone activated.
(Published at mocoNews.net)

During the sale, he told me there was an argument between employees inside the store on Friday about all the iPhones still in stock that the store wasn’t allowed to sell on the first day. And that jives well with numerous reports that claim AT&T stores were directed to sell a limited number of devices each day even though their backrooms were stocked with more. AT&T didn’t respond to calls for comment. Still, with all the activation problems and long lines, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) sold more than 1 million iPhones before Monday.

Five AT&T stores, one Apple store and still no iPhone 3G. Once I pulled up to the closest AT&T store, I instantly knew I was in for an adventure. At least 75 people in line at 7:15 a.m. (PDT) and the second guy in line was trying to sell his spot for $250 minimum. People were camped out along 2nd Avenue in the Belmont Shores neighborhood of Long Beach, Calif. for up to 24 hours before the doors swung open. Camping chairs, pajamas, newspapers and coffee cups were in abundance as the crowd waited anxiously for the buying to begin. AT&T representatives wouldn’t confirm, but a few people in line heard there were only 40 units available, so I jetted off to another store across town in a less popular neighborhood.

(Published at mocoNews.net)

No luck there either, but I waited around until about 10:30 a.m. (PDT) before throwing in the towel. To say the line moved at a sluggish pace would be an understatement. Turtles crawl faster. After two-and-a-half hours inching along the line, and with about 40 people in front of me, an AT&T representative whispered that there were only 9 units left. None of the employees at the Long Beach stores would officially comment on how many iPhones were on hand or even if they expected to meet demand. “We’re trying to accommodate the public,” one manager said, declining to give more information. Along with unmet demand, early customers who were able to purchase an iPhone talked about activation snafus inside the store and were sent home to activate on iTunes.

It was past 11 a.m. by the time I reached the next AT&T store on my journey toward iPhone 3G-ness in Wilmington. That store and two subsequent stores in Harbor City and Carson were completely sold out. Each of the stores tried their best to sell late arrivals an iPhone that would be shipped to them within five days, but few were taking up the offer.

Finally, I reached the Apple store in Manhattan Beach, where we’d been told there were still plenty of units to sell. The line was hundreds long and winding through and outside the mall. Although my determination to get a new iPhone at this point was at near-crazy fanboy levels, the line was just too much to bear after five hours of trying unsuccessfully. I’ve waited in shorter lines for much cooler experiences. So, like thousands of others, I will sit it out and wait another day to try my luck. But you can be sure I’ll come equipped with water, a chair and other essentials to help pass the time. For now, I’ll bear and grin it through continued use of my Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q9h, which crashed on me at least five times this morning.

So where exactly are all the game-changing entertainment applications for the iPhone? After skimming through the App store that launched today on iTunes, it shows that of the 554 applications, 214 carry the “entertainment” tag, but only six are video related and 14 deal with music. And of those, most are informational with less than half actually playing video or music. Instead, the entertainment category is chalk full of old books with 44 titles, ranging from Charles Dickens’ Hard Times to A Tale of Two Cities. There are also 44 games broken into a standalone category, but plenty more slipped into the entertainment bucket. It’s early, but without anything more substantial coming from the music labels or TV networks, it begs the question as to whether entertainment companies will harness the potential of the device? Furthermore, the lack of entertainment options is even more shocking given Apple’s history of blazing new ground with digital music and video on the iPod.
(Published at mocoNews.net)

Overall, most of the applications that launched today are from the same companies we heard from in February, when Apple first announced its plans for the SDK and the App Store, and last month, when it firmed up plans for the new device. There’s been no surprises yet—there’s not one new branded, real entertainment application to be found from the TV, film or music industry. Pandora and AOL Radio are offering free iPhone applications under the music category, but that’s about it from the movers and shakers in that space. And RealNetworks told us yesterday it has no plans to develop a Rhapsody application for the iPhone. Social networking applications, books, games and clients for online properties seem to comprise the bulk of what’s been released thus far.

Is Apple holding itself and others back by discouraging media companies from developing apps for the iPhone because it prefers to be the point of distribution for content? After all, the company was well ahead of the digital, portable music curve with its iPod, having usurped much of the music industry’s power in less than a decade. If Apple doesn’t make a mobile hit this go around it will clearly have to look out for the likes of Nokia, which plans to subsidize access to entire catalogs of music through device sales soon. For now, Apple doesn’t appear to be blazing any trails in big-name mobile entertainment, but perhaps its only a matter of time.