CTIA Fall show

Everyone knows that texting and driving will kill you. Well, maybe not, but initiatives to outlaw texting while operating motor vehicles stem from accidents due to mobile phone use. iZUP (eyes-up) is a new product we saw demoed at the CTIA Wireless conference (see all stories) that addresses this head-on.

The app springs to life after it detects that your phone is traveling at speeds over 5 miles per hour, after which point it all but locks down the screen. You won't be able to dial a number, launch an app, or even think about reading or composing an SMS. That's not to say there's no access at all. You can dial emergency, of course, and can select a few preapproved phone numbers and apps (just Google Maps for now) that you can launch in just a click or a tap. You'll manage these whitelisted numbers completely online.

While this is a ready solution for families with teenage drivers, and for corporations to enforce company policy on company phones, it must also be customizable to allow for different scenarios. In response, the iZUP team told us it's looking into such features as a passenger override, so that a non-driver can regain control of the phone.

We expect iZUP to launch in the beginning of November as a subscription plan--about $5 per month for a single user and about $50 for a yearlong subscription, and $6 per month for the whole family, with about a $60 per year plan.

(Credit: Snac)

Not everyone has a smartphone, and strange as it may sound for those who can't live without their mini call-placing computers, avoiding an $80 to $100 monthly data plan is often driving that conscious choice. But it is possible to get a data add-on to a cell phone plan for as little as $10 a month. For that set of in-betweeners, a program like Snac could bridge the gap between a modest data plan and accessing Web content like social network feeds and news stories.

Snac, in open beta, provides a dashboard of thumbnail-size widgets that periodically grab content from Facebook, Twitter, Gmail (POP3), the weather, Google Calendar, news sources, and so on. Snac precaches a few layers of content, so that when you click a widget, you'll be able to immediately see headlines, status updates, and so on, on a small pop-up window.

Snac isn't just read-only either. For instance, you're able to update your social networking status and add comments in Facebook. Ditto with Twitter, but Snac isn't equipped for direct replies. Opening a news story pushes you to your phone's default browser, but Snac CEO Mark Caron tells us they'll soon add an in-app browser for reading purposes. At this point, you're unable to configure how often Snac pulls in fresh content, but Caron says they're looking into that, too.

Caron demoed Snac beta on a Sony Ericsson TM 506 phone, and a private beta version for BlackBerry. It works on almost 300 Java feature phones, but also on Symbian and Windows phones. There's no limit to how many widgets you can install from the Snac gallery, and managing the dashboard is straightforward from the phone settings and from the Web.

The free, ad-supported app isn't much of a looker, with a boring background, blocky typeface, and sketchbook widget design. But it worked quickly and well in our demo. We'll be keeping an eye out for future developments.

The Samsung Omnia 2 was announced for Verizon Wireless back in June, but an official release date and pricing were not disclosed at that time. Unfortunately, CTIA Fall 2009 didn't reveal any new information, but we did finally get some hands-on time with the device.

Both Samsung and Microsoft had the Omnia successor displayed on the show floor, but a Microsoft employee was kind enough to part with his personal GSM version of the Omnia 2 so we could check it out. The smartphone was running Windows Mobile 6.5, but there's some question as to whether the Verizon Omnia 2 will ship with Windows Mobile 6.5 out of the box or Windows Mobile 6.1 with an option to update the OS. Let's hope it's the former.

Let's also hope it ships soon. With the release of the HTC Imagio and the upcoming BlackBerry Storm 2 and Android devices, the competition's getting pretty stiff. Check out our hands-on photos of the Samsung Omnia 2 below and just remember that this isn't the Verizon model, but it'll at least give you an idea of what to expect.

Samsung Omnia 2 photos

From left to right: Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm CEO; Irwin Jacobs, chairman and former CEO of Qualcomm; Steve Largent, CTIA president and CEO

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET )

SAN DIEGO--Executives from mobile chipmaker Qualcomm said Thursday at the CTIA Fall 2009 show here that more wireless spectrum is needed to sustain current trends in wireless data traffic. The father-and-son duo who serve as chairman and CEO of the company respectively also warned against stringent Net neutrality regulation.

Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm's founder, former CEO, and current chairman, and Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's current chief executive, took the stage at the event with CTIA CEO and President Steve Largent for a conversation about the past and future of the wireless industry. As part of the discussion, both Jacobses said that more wireless spectrum is needed to keep up with the pace of customer demand for wireless Internet services. And they warned against strict regulation that could restrict operators' ability to manage their networks.

The CTIA, which is the lobbying organization for the wireless industry, has been pushing the Federal Communications Commission to allocate more spectrum for auction. The group sent a letter recently asking the FCC to allocate an additional 800 MHz of spectrum.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said during his keynote address here Wednesday that finding more spectrum is the No. 1 priority for the agency. And he promised that the commission would do all it can to encourage more efficient use of spectrum, as well as, reallocate spectrum and find new spectrum to auction off.

Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's current CEO, said that engineers are at their limit in terms of squeezing out efficiencies within the current bands of spectrum. Qualcomm, which was founded in 1985, has been instrumental in the development of the wireless industry. The company holds hundreds of patents and its engineers have invented technology that is fundamental to most cell phones used throughout the world today.

"We've done what we can in the lab to make mobile devices more efficient," he said. "We will have to use different tricks now to get to the next level."

He said that wireless operators, when building the next generation of 4G wireless networks, will have to build more dense networks with towers spaced closer together. He said managing the interference among these radios will be a challenge but that engineers will be able to figure it out.

The elder Jacobs also suggested using femto cells, which create personal cell sites to boost cellular phone signals in homes or offices.

The younger Jacobs said that wireless operators also need to add more capacity to their backhaul networks. This is the part of the network that connects the wireless tower to the carrier's backbone network. And the problem today is that many connections from the cell towers to the backbone don't have enough capacity to support the traffic coming from within the cell sites.

"With data there are large peak to average ratios," Paul Jacobs said. "Data traffic is very bursty, which means you need more head room in the backhaul network."

But even with increased capacity throughout the network, wireless operators will also have to manage their networks to handle the growing data traffic. Paul Jacobs added that the industry must be careful to avoid overly burdensome regulation that could interfere with this traffic management. He also said strict Net neutrality rules could hamper the development of new business models, such as the one that's used for the e-reader by Amazon Kindle. Customers who buy the Kindle don't sign up to a wireless service. The service is bundled into the cost of the device.

Paul Jacobs' comments echoed sentiments expressed by Ralph de la Vega AT&T's wireless CEO during his speech on Wednesday. De la Vega referenced "broadband hogs," who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. And he said it is important, especially with respect to wireless networks, to make sure that a few subscribers don't eat up all the bandwidth so that there is nothing left for other customers.

The comments come as the FCC prepares to make its Net neutrality principles for an open Internet official regulation. Critics of Net neutrality regulation, such as the phone companies, say they don't want to lose the ability to manage their networks. And de la Vega said specifically that he doesn't believe that wireless and wireline networks should follow the same regulations.

But Chairman Genachowski said he understands that Internet providers and wireless operators in particular need to manage their networks.

"We recognize there are differences between wired and wireline network technologies," Genachowski said during a press conference Wednesday. "They are different networks. And because they are different, I have said the rules that are adopted need to allow for reasonable network management. But we need to have clear rules of the road for everyone regardless of how they access the Internet."

Paul Jacobs said Thursday that he thinks Genachowski understands the wireless industry's challenges. But he said that other regulators and politicians may need more of an education.

"During the Internet bubble there was all kind of funding for dark fiber," he said. "And I think people thought carrying those bits was free. But it's not. It's expensive. And I think the regulators may not realize how expensive it could get."

Split screen is Bolt's take on zooming.

(Credit: Bitstream)

We were impressed with the Opera Mini 5 beta browser, which came out in mid-September. At CTIA Wireless 2009, a smaller player, Bolt Browser, leaves its beta behind to chase after Opera's dominance as an alternative browser for Java phones.

We liked what we saw the first time we tested out Bolt as a beta (video review) on a Samsung Propel. Bolt's rendering felt truer than Opera Mini 4.2 on many sites, but it didn't seem faster. Now that Bolt has shucked off its beta, we find performance essentially unchanged.

True, Bolt has undergone some cosmetic alterations, such as a Google search box that's separate from the URL bar, and a welcome download manager that lets you download files as well as upload. It also caches pages now, so you can jump back to the previous page without reloading it. Bolt 1.5's new video manager selects the best of three delivery mechanisms for streaming video on your device, including triggering your media player if the phone isn't well equipped for playback.

But what of those speed claims? Bolt, a proxy browser built on Webkit, now claims that it's about 15 percent faster than before and compresses data at a 23:1 ratio. In other words, 2.3MB from the Web shrinks down to 100KB. That may be, but we pulled up our online stopwatch to run our own surf tests.

Without ever budging from our roost, we tested navigation three times on each of three sites, keeping the routine the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2. We would have thrown Opera Mini 5 beta into the mix, but it didn't seem compatible yet with our testing phone, a Samsung Propel on AT&T's 3G network. We're telling you this because we know what a difference carrier, data strength, and handset type makes in each user's result. Were you to run the same test, you might get slightly different numbers.

Bolt took 12-14 seconds to load and navigate on Nordstrom.com versus Opera Mini's 9-13 seconds. It took 26 seconds to load The New York Times site and two other stories on Bolt. On Opera, the same stories loaded in 19, 11, and 10 seconds. Yelp was about the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2, about 14 seconds, but one Bolt page ran 2 seconds slower. Our tests clearly favor Opera Mini for speed, but there are one or two other caveats and clarifications to consider before declaring an all-around winner.

First, Bolt renders pages more faithfully than Opera Mini, with sharper text and photos, and with all the photos intact. Opera Mini 4.2 tended to overly compress some, but it bought it speed. On some sites, Opera Mini stripped an image or two out, or the photo footprints drastically condensed. Bolt also has an interesting feature that Opera doesn't--the capability to split the screen. This is essentially Bolt's zoom feature. As you pass the cursor over the zoomed-out section up top, the same area is zoomed in below. The 5 key toggles split-screen view on and off.

So which Java browser prevails overall? It's a tough call: Bolt renders graphics more clearly, but Opera was speedier. We'll see if these numbers continue to stand up when Opera Mini 5 comes out of beta. In the meantime, try them both out and chime in with your own views. You may find that a few seconds are worth it to you to use Bolt's interface. Maybe speed is all that matters and you'll stick with Opera Mini for now. You tell us.

Bolt browser 1.5 is free to download. BlackBerry owners should download the optimized version for BlackBerry phones, which integrates RIM's typical operating system shortcuts.

SAN DIEGO--AT&T's chief technology officer, John Donovan, is defending his company's wireless network, despite complaints about dropped calls and slow Internet access from frustrated iPhone users.

Donovan, who gave a keynote speech here at the CTIA Fall 2009 trade show Thursday, said that despite what people might be saying about problems on AT&T's network, his company is focused on providing customers with an excellent wireless experience.

John Donovan, AT&T CTO

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

"I'm not ignoring the criticism of our network," he told the audience. "I'm well aware of what's being said in the press, in blogs, and on Twitter. But I don't base my network plans on what I read on blogs. No one knows more about the wireless data customer experience than AT&T."

Since Apple's iPhone launched exclusively on AT&T's network over two years ago, customers have been complaining about dropped calls and slow data connections. The problems only seemed to get worse when AT&T and Apple began selling the iPhone 3G. In many cities, such as San Francisco, customers have complained that their iPhone 3G devices operate more on the slower 2.5G EDGE network than on the 3G network. And still others say that dropped calls have gotten worse.

Donovan and Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, whom I talked to after the keynote, each acknowledged that they have heard the complaints. But they wouldn't go so far as to admit that there is an actual problem. Instead they pointed to the rapid growth of data usage on their wireless network and the change in customer usage patterns. They also said that AT&T is doing everything it can to stay ahead of customer demand.

Surprisingly, Donovan and de la Vega downplayed the iPhone's role in this rapid increase in data usage on the AT&T network. Instead they pointed to the entire category of "integrated devices," which are mobile devices that can connect to the Internet. This category of phone includes smartphones, like the iPhone, as well as quick-messaging devices like the LG Neon.

Donovan said that AT&T has more customers using "integrated devices" than any other carrier in the U.S. In fact, in the second quarter of 2009 nearly 60 percent of AT&T's wireless subscribers bought an integrated Web device, he said. He said that wireless packet data has increased more than 18 times in the last two and a half years. And voice traffic on the AT&T wireless network has nearly doubled in that time.

Out with the old planning models
These customers and the increase in data traffic are putting strains on the network. Because data traffic tends to come in bursts and because it's often difficult to predict when and where subscribers will flood a given cell site with mobile Web usage, AT&T has had to rethink how it plans its network.

"There is nothing I look at more than customer usage patterns," he said. "There have been big changes in usage, which has forced us to throw our traditional planning models out the window."

While most people would assume that most of the wireless data traffic growth on AT&T's network comes from the iPhone, AT&T's executives said that isn't the case. De la Vega said that quick-messaging devices are actually driving a significant portion of data usage on the network.

"We have seen unprecedented growth on our network in the past couple of years," he said during an interview on the sidelines of the conference. "And the iPhone has certainly played a role. But it's not the only device driving growth. We have a lot of people going from basic feature phones to quick-messaging devices and other smartphones, which is driving data usage."

Donovan said that quick-messaging devices are the fastest growing category of device on AT&T's network.

In an effort to keep ahead of customer demand, AT&T has been spending billions of dollars on upgrading its network. Donovan said that AT&T spent more money in 2008 on its network than in previous years. The company's annual report indicates it spent about $20 billion in capital expenditures for its wireless and wireline networks in 2008. And this year AT&T is estimating it will spend between $17 billion and $18 billion on its wireless and wireline networks.

"We have been upgrading our network for two years," de la Vega said. "We are putting more of our 3G traffic onto our 850MHz spectrum, which will improve coverage and the quality of our network. We are down to the end of that process with only a few cities, like San Francisco, left."

Donovan said during his speech that AT&T has completed 90 percent of its 850MHz upgrade, with cities such as New York, Atlanta, Houston, and Denver already done. He said six major cities will get the faster network speeds this year, including Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami. And the company will have the HSPA 7.2 network up and running in 25 to 30 markets by mid-2010 with the goal of reaching 90 percent of its current 3G wireless footprint in 2011.

Looking ahead to 4G
Donovan also mentioned the company's plans for its 4G wireless network, which will use a technology called LTE, or Long Term Evolution. It's the same technology that AT&T's rival Verizon Wireless is using to build its 4G wireless network. Verizon has already begun building its LTE network and expects to launch the network commercially in 2010.

AT&T is testing LTE this year and will begin commercial deployments sometime in 2011. Donovan defended his company's plan to upgrade to HSPA 7.2 (for High Speed Packet Access) first rather than going straight to a 4G wireless technology, as its competitors are doing.

AT&T's slide showing growth projections for LTE devices.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET )

"If you're questioning whether AT&T will be left by its competitors who are in a rush, the answer is no," he said. "Succeeding in this market isn't just about fast speeds, but wide coverage. And it's not just about a device or two, but an entire portfolio of products."

Even though he didn't cite Verizon Wireless by name, it was clear which carrier he was targeting with his sharp comments. He showed a chart indicating how many LTE devices will be on the market in 2010, the year that Verizon is launching its LTE network, and it showed a very small number, with the curve indicating a rapid increase in LTE devices a few years from now.

"A rich network without devices is not the best of use of capital," he said. "AT&T's market timing will be right."

HTC HD2

(Credit: Bonnie Cha/CNET)

Of all the Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones announced this week at CTIA Fall 2009, the HTC HD2 is arguably the sexiest and most powerful of the bunch.

The HD2 boasts a 4.3-inch WVGA (480x800) capacitive touch screen and is powered by Qualcomm's new 1GHz Snapdragon mobile processor, all while measuring just 0.43 inches in thickness. It also offers an HTC Sense user experience, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack--the works.

With those kind of impressive specs and sexy looks, can you blame us for being disappointed when it was a no-show at Wednesday night's Mobile Focus event? Well, someone must have heard our nighttime prayers because HTC America's vice president of sales and marketing, Jason Mackenzie, presented us with a surprise this morning: the HTC HD2.

Though it wasn't running final software, we were impressed with the phone's responsiveness, the customizable user interface, and then there's the screen, oh, the beautiful screen. Images and text absolutely pop and you can see so much more at a glance given the extra-large screen. Perhaps the best part? HTC has added multitouch capabilities so, like the iPhone and Palm Pre, you can pinch your fingers to zoom in and out of Web pages, photos, and e-mails.

When can you get your hands on this thing? Well, as SlashGear reported Wednesday, HTC CEO Peter Chou said the company is working on a U.S.-compatible version of the HD2 for release in 2010. HTC America would neither confirm nor deny this, but Mackenzie added that the intent for the device is global distribution. When asked about possible U.S. carriers, Mackenzie didn't get into specifics but did say that the good thing about the HD2 is that it wouldn't be hard to pitch, and we certainly agree.

So while we wait, you can check out some hands-on photos of the HTC HD2 below. We'll add more commentary and first impressions soon, but feel free to get the discussion going on your thoughts of the HD2.

HTC HD2 photos

The Accuterra topo map will get a slide-out control panel in version 3.1.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

As a wannabe weekend warrior, I'm happy to see topographical maps for mobile phones gaining ground on decidedly consumer devices. Interactive trail maps like Accuterra for iPhone make a lot of sense, especially with cellular reception and baked-in GPS chips strong enough in so many local hills and national parks that you can actively record your steps, share photos, and track your stats.

At CTIA Fall 2009 (see all stories), we got a sneak peek at the next version of Accuterra that will hit the iPhone app store. Version 3.1, which is expected in a few weeks, doesn't layer on a ton of features, but there is a new slide-out panel we like that makes the controls much more accessible. With a well-aimed swipe and a tap, you'll be able to toggle between the Accuterra topo maps and Google's maps. The app will also contain a simpler library organized around a search bar up top and traditional iPhone tab menu buttons below.

By the end of the year, you should be able to purchase extra content within the app, such as a video of your location or a historical Civil War walking tour. Accuterra costs 99 cents in the App Store; with local maps selling for about $3 each.

Samsung announced its second Google Android Phone, the Samsung Moment at the CTIA Fall Show.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

SAN DIEGO--After two years of waiting, Google Android phones are finally hitting the market en masse.

In the past couple of months, nine devices using Google's mobile operating system have been announced, including the Motorola Cliq, which goes on sale in November, and the new Samsung Moment, which was announced Wednesday at the CTIA Fall 2009 trade show here. The pipeline is full of more Android devices, some of which have been confirmed and some that are still rumored to be in development.

"We are seeing a lot of interest in Android here," Kim Titus, a spokesman for Samsung, said Wednesday at the CTIA trade show, where the company is showing off its two Google Android handsets--the Samsung Moment and the Samsung Behold II. "I think these devices have an opportunity to become strong cross-over devices appealing both to business customers as well as to consumers and prosumers."

U.S. wireless operators are also jumping on the Google Android bandwagon. So far, T-Mobile USA, the smallest of the four nationwide carriers, has been the only U.S. wireless operator to offer Android devices. Once the Motorola Cliq and the Samsung Bold II launch, T-Mobile will be offering four different Google Android devices on its network.

But T-Mobile won't be the only Android carrier in the U.S. for much longer. Starting next week, Sprint Nextel will introduce its first Android phone, the HTC Hero. And a couple of weeks later on November 1, it will begin selling the newly announced Samsung Moment.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless operator, will also be getting two new Google Android phones in the coming weeks. Verizon executives wouldn't provide specifics about the devices, but one of the devices is expected to be from Motorola. Verizon and Google said Tuesday that they will be working closely to introduce new Google Android phones.

Even AT&T, the second largest wireless provider in the U.S. and the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, is expected to have a Google Android phone soon. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published a report stating that AT&T will be offering Dell's soon-to-be announced Google Android phone.

Device makers see Android as their biggest hope to compete against Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices in the smartphone market. Both Apple and RIM develop their own software that is proprietary to their homegrown hardware.

The Samsung Moment up close at the CTIA Fall 2009 Show.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

Like the Google Android operating system, Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform can also be used on different hardware. But as Microsoft struggles to keep pace with the rapidly changing mobile market, some device makers, such as Motorola, are gravitating toward Android. This is not to say that Microsoft is out of the game. In fact, the company just announced Windows Mobile 6.5 this week at CTIA, but experts, such as CNET's own Bonnie Cha, believe the upgrade is incremental with a bigger overhaul of the software not expected until next year.

Meanwhile, momentum is growing for Google Android phones.

Google unveiled its Android open development operating system in the fall of 2007. It took a year before the first Android phone, the HTC G1 sold by T-Mobile, was introduced. Many industry watchers had expected other handset makers to start announcing their own Android devices in February 2009 at the GSMA World Congress trade show in Barcelona. But the show came and went with few mentions of Android.

Later that spring, people were expecting Android announcements at the CTIA's spring trade show in Las Vegas. But device makers kept mum. In June, T-Mobile USA and HTC introduced the second Android handset into the U.S. market, the MyTouch. This phone was supposed to be a more refined version of the G1 and was designed to appeal to the mainstream wireless consumer.

Now as Android is about to hit its second birthday, the much anticipated flood of Android device announcements is beginning. Manufacturers, such as Samsung, Motorola, LG and HTC are announcing multiple Google Android devices. Motorola's co-CEO Sanjay Jha said this week that he expects his company to introduce "multiple tens of products" using the Android operating system.

Even phone makers Sony Ericsson and Nokia, which historically have built phones using the Symbian operating system, are rumored to be working on Android handsets. The operating system has even appealed to companies not traditionally in the cell phone business, such as laptop makers Lenovo and Dell and Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei.

While Google Android may give device makers, such as Samsung and Motorola, a way to compete with the iPhone, it could be difficult for them to differentiate their products. So far, the Android devices that have been announced look very similar. All of them sport a touch screen that takes much of the face of the phone. Some, like the Motorola Cliq and the Samsung Moment, also have QWERTY keypads that slides out for consumers who like the feel of real keys.

Samsung's Titus said there are subtle differences in the hardware. For example, the Samsung Moment uses a bright OLED screen that makes images sharper and colors more vibrant. The screen is also designed to be more energy efficient. And the Moment uses much faster processors that most other cell phones. But he conceded that because all the devices use a touch screen that they look very much alike.

"When you have a screen that takes up so much of the landscape, it's not surprising that they look somewhat similar," he said.

Since the Android platform is completely open, the real customization will likely be software based. For example, the Samsung Moment, which will be sold on Sprint's network, comes preloaded with applications and features specific to Sprint's network. These applications include Sprint's navigation service and applications for NFL and Nascar, two organizations which have special relationships with Sprint.

Motorola has also customized the user interface for its Cliq phone and it has introduced Motoblur, a social-networking-optimized version of the user interface. Motorola executives told developers at its conference this week that it expects some but not all of its new Android phones to come with Motoblur installed.

While handset makers and wireless operators may be tempted to further customize the Android software, doing so is risky since the promise of an operating system such as Android is to provide developers with an easy and open way to develop applications that can be downloaded across multiple devices.

So far developers have already created more than 10,000 applications for Google Android devices. These apps can be accessed through the Google Android Market. Big developers, such as Facebook, have already begun developing Android specific applications. And at its developer conference, Motorola announced a series of new apps available for the new Cliq, including Accuweather, the Barnes & Noble eReader, MySpace, and QuickOffice, the company said.

But as new devices are introduced on different carrier networks, it will be interesting to see if these applications in the Android Market will work across all the different hardware. If they do, they could drive more Android device development, which could lead to the Android mobile platform actually living up to the hype that was promised nearly two years ago. And if they don't, then Android will likely become just another mobile operating system that further fragments the market.