Well I just finished the first week of school.  It’s going to be a tough semester for sure.  My Interactive Systems/User Interface Design class is going to be a pain.  Hopefully the semester goes by really fast and I do well.  For those of you that don’t know, I’m a computer engineer major at the University of Texas Pan American.  I’m in my last year and can’t wait to get done with it!

Here are the classes that I’m taking this semester:

• Interactive Systems/User Interface Design
• Operating Systems
• Computer Architecture
• Software Engineering
• Differential Equations

Well wish me luck!

David Ciccone over at Mobility Today is giving away over $10,000 in prizes to honor any followers of his website or podcast listeners.  Giveaways include cases, phones, and much more!

Here are a few of the sponsors of the massive giveaways over at Mobility Today!

Check here for more details.  Be sure to hurry, because the giveaways are only until February 1st!

Microsoft sold more than 18 million Windows Mobile software licenses in its recently completed fiscal year – about 2 million short of its widely publicized 20 million-unit target – the senior vice president in charge of the business acknowledged Wednesday.

However, Microsoft was still able to increase Windows Mobile’s overall share of the worldwide mobile phone operating system market, despite increased competition from Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and others, said Andy Lees, senior vice president of the Redmond company’s Mobile Communications Business, in an interview.

Lees, a veteran Microsoft executive who moved from the Server & Tools unit in February, attributed the lower-than-projected Windows Mobile sales to some devices coming to market slightly later than previously expected. He declined to say which ones.

“That would be unfair to the OEMs,” he said, using the common abbreviation for original equipment manufacturers, or phone makers.

“The OEMs give us predictions as to when they’ll ship the devices, and I don’t want to put them in the dunk tank, if that’s a phrase, by implying that they didn’t stay on time. That’s confidential conversations that we have.”

Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices Division, touted the 20 million-unit projection repeatedly during presentations at industry trade shows during the past year.

The first clue about the shortfall emerged in early June, when a letter from Lees to the company’s partners said the company would sell “nearly 20 million Windows Mobile smartphone licenses” for the year, as opposed to the company’s previous promise of “more than 20 million” licenses sold. Asked about the change at the time, a Microsoft product manager said any shortfall would be nothing more than “a rounding error.”

Lees said the shortfall in Windows Mobile unit sales didn’t have a material impact on revenue in the Entertainment & Devices Division for the fiscal year, which ended June 30.

“It sounds like a large number of units, but actually, it’s less than about a month’s worth of a run-rate,” he said.

Lees cited IDC data indicating that Windows Mobile unit sales have grown faster than the overall market, expanding from slightly more than 11 percent to just under 13 percent of the worldwide market for “converged devices,” better known as smartphones.

The company also cites IDC data showing that Windows Mobile devices have outpaced Research in Motion’s unit sales in the past four quarters, and sold more than twice as many as Apple. RIM and Apple offer both software and mobile phones, while Windows Mobile comes on phones made by independent device manufacturers.

Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.1, with a streamlined user interface, in April, and a series of device manufacturers have come out with new and upgraded phones based on it. Devices using the new version include the HTC Touch Diamond, the HTC Touch Pro, and the Samsung Omnia. Devices coming out later include the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

Windows Mobile is “well poised for the future,” Lees said.

Microsoft and T-Mobile USA on Wednesday also announced a new version of the popular Sidekick phone, which uses technology from Danger, a company acquired by Microsoft this year.

via seattlepi.com

Bangalore: Nokia’s open source mobile platform Symbian is just getting bigger. It will merge with Android, Google’s mobile device platform, which is also based on open source, to facilitate a single but larger open source operating system.

Analysts at J. Gold Associates say, “The merger will take place sometime in the near future, say three to six months.”

The move is considered unexpected as Android was about to launch its devices in late 2008, and Nokia announced in June that it would be moving Symbian towards open source, giving no clue of the two companies having any formal relationship that would come close to such a collaboration.

“But this is happening,” says J. Gold, because “A combination of the Android and Symbian efforts would be good for the industry, good for Google and good for Symbian.” And a handful of similar mergers are in the offing that includes Linksys and Belkin, Red Hat and Ubuntu, and Engadget and Gizmodo.

In June Nokia bought Symbian, paving the way for an open-source Symbian environment. But since Symbian’s code was destined to be accessed only by the Symbian Foundation, the software maker had announced that it was open to collaborate with Google and its Linux-based Android mobile operating system.

via SiliconIndia

Well, I’ve been using Pocket Informant for several years now and have been quite happy with it’s performance.  It is a great solid application for Windows Mobile which adds enhanced performance and features that are not included with the default WM PIM.  So today, I decided to give Agendus a try and see how it compares to Pocket Informant.

Agendus for Windows Mobile has been designed from the ground up with one goal in mind: to bring order and piece of mind in the busy life of today’s windows mobile phone users. It accomplishes such goal by seamlessly unifying schedule, contact management and task organization in a homogeneous, straightforward and pleasant to use interface. Its out-of-the-box ready to use functionality is complemented by a variety of fine tuning options and preferences aimed at satisfying the novice as well as the power user audiences.

I must say that Agendus for Windows Mobile is certainly a lot friendlier to new users in terms of usuability when compared to other PIM like Pocket Informant or Agenda One.  I found that the look and feel of the program to be very nice and clean.  I had no problems configuring the application to my needs.  One thing that I like that in Agendus, that is missing from Pocket Informant,  is the Today View.  At this view all of your appointments, task, calls, and recent messages for the current day will be displayed.  Also you can have it configured to show a qoute of the day, weather, and stock qoutes in the Today View.  Other views that Agendus has that are fairly common in other advance PIM programs are: Agenda View, Week View, Task View, Quarter View, Contact View, and Task View. 

Although I found that Agendus is a great add-on to the Windows Mobile experience, I am turned away from it due to the lack of “touch” mode interface.  This is where Pocket Informant shines when compared to Agendus.  Since I have an HTC Touch, having this mode is very crucial for me.  The soft key menu style in Pocket Informant makes navigation between the views painless.  The views that are available in Pocket Informant are: Events, Agenda, Day/Week, Week, Month, Timeline, Journal, Notes, Tasks, and Contacts.  I find myself using the Agenda and Month views the most.  And since I have Pocket Informant as my default PIM, I also use it to navigate through my contacts.

Pocket Informant brings a new level of ease of use to your mobile device.  Search your Contacts with the innovative 12-Key Search Pad, scale your feature interface needs using our Roles including a “Pocket Outlook with Benefits Role”.  A near fully one handed interface lets you use Pocket Informant without ever touching the stylus – or if you prefer finger control Pocket Informant brings finger touch scrolling, a touch ABC bar in Contacts, and new finger friendly time pickers.

So in the end I decided to stick with Pocket Informant.  I will be keeping an eye out for any new releases of Agendus with hopes of a possible “touch” mode added.  I definitely recommend to download both applications and give them a try.  And of course pick the one that is more suitable for your needs.

Agendus – iambic

Pocket Informant – WebIS

LOS ANGELES – Apple’s experiencing serious Microsoft-type growing pains with its launch of the new iPhone that went on sale two weeks ago.

It’s not just that Apple can’t satisfy demand for the phones. A new, longer procedure to activate the iPhone is making the in-store buying process much longer and keeping customers waiting in line and fuming for hours.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Grace Ciurluini, in line at the Los Angeles Apple Store at The Grove shopping center Sunday. By 11:30 a.m., just 30 minutes after opening, the store had sold its allotment of iPhones for the day. A line of about 50 people was all it could handle. Apple reps closed the line to newcomers, telling them to return Monday between 8 and 10 a.m. for vouchers to get phones.

 Sunday, Apple Stores in New York, Seattle, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Nashville, Atlanta and Arlington, Va., said they were sold out of the $199 iPhone.

 Saturday, Apple altered its store hours to try to handle demand, saying it would open daily except Sunday at 8 a.m. to serve iPhone buyers.

 ”Clearly, Apple is having manufacturing and software problems,” independent analyst Rob Enderle says. “A star product like the iPhone does a lot of great things for Apple, but when things go wrong, it can bring down the entire image of a company.”

 Along with the new, faster and cheaper iPhone (originally sold for $599 in 2007), Apple introduced software aimed at businesses called MobileMe, a way to sync corporate e-mail with the iPhone and work accounts.

 MobileMe has been fraught with problems – more than 70 bugs have needed repair – causing Apple to post several apologies online. “It’s been a rocky road, and we know the pain some people have been suffering,” Apple said over the weekend.

 Enderle compares the iPhone relaunch to Microsoft’s poorly received debut in late 2006 of Vista, the Windows upgrade that had consumers howling when it didn’t work as advertised.

 ”Vista wasn’t finished, and that’s what the iPhone feels like,” he says. “It’s been rushed onto market, even though it wasn’t ready.”

 The lines are still long at stores, however, “because the buzz hasn’t caught up with the news,” Enderle says. “People line up for it, so it must be good. But that can’t last forever.”

 When asked for comment, Apple spokesman Steve Dowling referred readers to its website, where Apple outlined the new hours for buying the iPhone and said additional staffers are being hired.

via Yahoo

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) posted a higher quarterly profit on strong wireless sales, but its shares fell on worries about its declining landlines and weaker-than-expected growth in its FiOS Internet and video service.

FiOS, delivered over a high-speed, all-fiber network, is a key part of Verizon’s strategy to bolster its landline business and compete with cable companies’ all-in-one phone, video and Internet offerings.

Second-quarter profit rose to $1.88 billion, or 66 cents a share, from $1.68 billion, or 58 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as merger integration costs, earnings per share were 67 cents, beating the average analyst forecast for 64 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 3.7 percent to $24.12 billion, in line with analysts’ forecasts.

But residential switched access lines fell 11.4 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, while total lines fell 8.5 percent, Verizon said on Monday.

Analysts said the results showed the company’s massive investment in FiOS was failing to stem a loss in traditional phone subscribers amid a weak economy.

“It’s no surprise Verizon is losing access lines, but the rate at which they’re losing them is enough to make you blanch,” said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, adding the rate of access line losses was the “worst in history.”

Verizon shares fell 2 percent to $33.77 by mid-afternoon.

Verizon said it added 176,000 new FiOS television customers in the quarter, bringing the total to nearly 1.4 million. It added 187,000 FiOS Internet customers, to a total of 2 million.

Both UBS analyst John Hodulik and Goldman Sachs’ Jason Armstrong had expected a gain of 230,000 FiOS TV customers.

Verizon Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl said FiOS growth slowed after a promotion giving free flat-screen TVs to new customers ended, but as a result, the costs of acquiring subscribers also fell.

Some analysts said FiOS could gain momentum as it expands into new areas later this year. On Monday, it launched FiOS TV in New York City, where it will compete with cable service providers such as Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) and Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N).

WIRELESS STRONG

Despite the disappointment over FiOS, Verizon’s wireless growth was solid and its wireless profit margin of 45.6 percent was ahead of expectations. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King and Bank of America analyst David Barden both had expected a wireless margin of 44.9 percent.

King said Verizon’s territory, which includes New York and New Jersey, has helped it weather the economic downturn more easily than industry leader AT&T Inc (T.N), which serves areas such as Florida, hit hard by the housing crisis.

“You are clearly seeing some geographic differences in the areas they operate in with regards to economic pressures,” King said, even as he noted that Verizon’s FiOS growth was weaker than he had expected.

Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), said last week it added 1.5 million subscribers in the quarter, taking its total subscriber base to 68.7 million.

Verizon plans to buy rural wireless provider Alltel, a move that would replace AT&T as the top U.S. wireless provider. It reaffirmed plans to close the deal by the end of the year.

Strigl said the weaker U.S. economy is not hurting Verizon’s business so far. Sales to clients in the financial sector could soften, but the impact would be small.

“Although we may see some softening in some of our volumes, we do not expect any significant economic impact on our financial results in the second half of the year,” he said, adding the company would be “comfortable” considering a dividend increase in the fall.

Verizon also said it was positive it could resolve a dispute with union workers over a labor contract that is set to expire on August 2, thereby avoiding a strike.

A strike would be a blow as the company is ramping up its expansion of FiOS and beginning its New York City roll-out

.

“I know that our employees know FiOS is creating new jobs and, also, plenty of work for our existing employees,” Strigl said.

Verizon said it would offer 100 high-definition channels in New York City, although its main “triple-play” offer of video, Internet and phone would be a $95-a-month plan which comes with 54 HD channels and Internet download speeds of 20 megabits per second and upload speeds of 5 megabits per second.

via Yahoo

Our CNET Labs team has unveiled their battery performance results for music and video playback on the iPhone 3G. We’re still working on iPhone talk time testing and we’ll be doing another round of audio and video tests with 3G disabled–but at least we have another piece of the puzzle to add to our review.

To give the test results some context, we also retested the first-generation iPhone, and simultaneously tested a comparable 3G multimedia phone, the Samsung Instinct. Apple’s public tech specs claim the iPhone 3G is capable of up to 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of music playback. Surprisingly, with 3G switched on the iPhone sailed past 24 hours of music playback, but tanked when it came to video. Further testing with 3G disabled may yet redeem Apple’s claim of 7 hours of video playback.

Enough talk–here’s the numbers:

Music playback battery drain

Apple iPhone 3G (Wi-Fi off, 3G on): 25.5 hours

Apple iPhone (Wi-Fi off, EDGE on): 31.4 hours

Samsung Instinct (3G on, Wi-Fi unavailable): 18.2 hours
Video playback battery drain (same settings as audio)

Apple iPhone 3G: 2.68 hours

Apple iPhone: 5.99 hours

Samsung Instinct: 4.28 hours
For good measure, we also threw in a data transfer test, which measures the time it takes to transfer a single 500Mb file to the phone from a PC. Files were transferred in iTunes 7.7 for both the iPhone 3G and first-generation iPhone, and Windows Media Player 11 for the Samsung Instinct.

File transfer speed

Apple iPhone 3G: 1.35 minutes

Apple iPhone: 1.6 minutes

Samsung Instinct: 7.71 minutes

via CNET

When Apple released its iPhone 2.0 software earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs said it would provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform for a mobile device. However, glitches in the software are leaving users frustrated, with a laundry list of complaints.

Apple launched its App Store just before it released the iPhone 3G, which uses the 2.0 software. Users of both the iPhone 3G and the first-generation iPhone upgraded with the 2.0 software can buy and download apps created by third-party developers.

Strong Expectations

The 2.0 software was also supposed to allow subscribers to Apple’s $99-a-year MobileMe service (formerly called .Mac) to seamlessly share e-mail, calendars and contacts between iPhones, PCs and Macs. It was billed as compatible with Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.

Instead, users are reporting crashes, slow synchronizations, and unexpected reboots with both the iPhone software and downloaded applications. Some users have reported sync times of 30 minutes, plus problems with GPS and Bluetooth. Other problems have been screen freezes, long iTunes backup times, and dropped applications.

Users have found some relief in deleting and then again downloading applications, but this is a temporary fix because the deleted apps return on the next sync. A more reliable fix has been to update the iPhone directly through the App Store or from iTunes instead of through the iPhone.

Update on the Way

Relief could be on the way as Apple distributes an iPhone 2.1 software update to developers. That version may include fixes for the reported bugs, though some observers are speculating there could be a special 2.01 update.

The update is also expected to include an improvement to the GPS feature, which currently reports a user’s location. Reportedly, the new version will add velocity and direction, which could be the start of turn-by-turn guidance.

Apple said 10 million apps were downloaded in the first weekend for the App Store. And chief financial officer Timothy Cook told analysts that one million iPhone 3Gs were sold in three days after the July 11 launch, compared to 74 days to sell one million of the first-generation iPhones.

via Yahoo

Google may use a user-driven rating system to help keep bad or harmful Android applications off mobile phones.

The search giant is in talks with mobile operators about offering phones based on its Android open-source platform, said Rich Miner, group manager of mobile platforms at Google, in an interview at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit on Wednesday. However, the carriers want reassurance that users won’t install troublesome applications, Miner said.

Google is making Android freely available to developers under the Apache open-source license and not restricting what they build with it. The company says its aim is to establish a common software platform for many handsets and help make mobile applications proliferate. In much of the world, software for mobile phones traditionally has been supplied through carriers after laborious reviews and modifications.

 Mobile operators are concerned primarily about two types of applications, Miner said: ones that can harm phones, the network, or subscribers’ personal data, and ones that are buggy or frustrating to use. They are concerned the latter will generate a high volume of calls to the carrier for support, he said.

 Google won’t compromise on letting Android developers offer their applications without prior approval. “We’re not going to have an app-signing hurdle,” Miner said.

 But in a bid to discourage users from installing bad applications, Google may use a rating system similar to the one on its YouTube video site. There, viewers can rate each video with a certain number of stars.

 If users of Android phones found applications with low star ratings, they would tend not to download them out of self-interest, thus reducing the impact of any bad applications that become available, Miner said.

 Also borrowing from YouTube, Google could act to remove applications or services that violate copyright, Miner said. In a system that has come under fire from YouTube users and copyright owners alike, Google can remove videos from the site in case of complaints of copyright infringement.

 Providers of open application platforms seem to be grappling with how to police the quality of software. Also on Wednesday, Facebook announced its Facebook Verification program in the wake of a flood of new applications being offered to users of the social-networking service. Starting in September, developers will be able to submit their applications to Facebook for verification that they meet certain criteria for trustworthiness, the company announced at its f8 developer conference in San Francisco. The company will also recognize what it considers the very best Facebook applications through a program called Great Apps.

 Even Apple, which more tightly controls iPhone applications offered on its AppStore, has a star-based user rating system.

 After Android phones hit the market, which Miner said is on track to happen in the second half of this year, some may come through mainstream carrier channels, including with price subsidies, according to Miner. As for carriers agreeing to let subscribers download any Android application, Miner said they are “getting there.”

via Yahoo