News, News & News…..!!!!

It’s been a little more than a month since the Apple iPhone 3G hit the street and users are complaining about one of its biggest selling features: speed. The phone is supposed to operate on a third-generation network, a major upgrade from other networks the iPhone operates on and an even bigger advance over the older Edge network. Unfortunately, 3G iPhone users are finding that their shiny new piece of hardware isn’t all roses and faster downloads. One analyst believes the perpetrator of the problem is an Infineon chip.The iPhone 3G sold more than 1 million units in its first weekend, based largely on the selling point of a faster network. But like the lines anxious consumers encountered at the Apple store, using the phone is taking longer than expected.

Nomura analyst Richard Windsor believes the complaints that have been cropping up on blogs and Apple’s own Web site point to something more than an isolated incident.

“There are too many instances on iPhone blogs and Apple’s own Web site for it to be coincidence,” he wrote in a report dated Aug. 12.

“Furthermore, it is not just the U.S. but other countries as well,” he also wrote in the report.

The most common complaint is that Internet speeds have been inconsistent, with a 3G network being available sometimes before users slip back onto a slower network such as Edge.

Windsor believes the problem can likely be traced to Infineon, a German chip manufacturer that provides the majority of chips to Apple for the iPhone 3G.

“We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier,” Windsor wrote.

Meanwhile, AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the U.S., hasn’t been confronted with the problem. In fact, the carrier has had very few complaints.

“This is not something that’s high on our radar screen. It’s not something we’ve had a lot of complaints about,” said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel.

A spokesman from Infineon declined to comment.

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Of course it couldn’t be Apple’s fault.

REPORTS OF DROPPED connections on the Iphone could be down to a dodgy network communications chip made by Infineon, according to an analyst at Nomura.

Reuters dug up a report by Nomura European Telecoms Analyst Richard Windsor who wrote this week: “We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier.”

“There are too many instances on IPhone blogs and Apple’s own website for it to be coincidence. Furthermore, it is not just the U.S. but other countries as well,” he said.

Businessweek carried a report online that also blamed Infineon. It said the fault afflicts two or three per cent of Iphone traffic.

Neither Apple and Infineon have deigned to comment.

We can make up an Apple comment though: “Of course it’s not our fault. We are put on this earth to spread joy and enlightenment, not woe and misfortune. If one of our toys won’t work it can’t be our fault. Steve Jobs is our leader therefore we are infallible. We blame the Germans. µ

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The single best feature in Apple’s second-generation iPhone 3G isn’t the increased speed or the GPS location-finding feature. It is something called the “App Store,” a clever distribution mechanism for third-party programs that can run on the iPhone and on its close cousin, the iPod Touch. And you don’t even need a new iPhone to get the App Store. It is also part of a free software upgrade for older iPhones and a $10 upgrade for the Touch. 

In the first 10 days alone after the new iPhone and the App Store launched on July 11, more than 900 programs — applications, or “apps” in tech jargon — have been introduced by numerous developers. Over 90 percent cost less than $10 or are free. 

Even more noteworthy: iPhone and Touch users have downloaded 25 million copies of these programs, including silly sound effects, challenging games, news readers and business applications. 

We have been furiously downloading and trying out scores of these programs, using a new iPhone 3G, an original iPhone and an iPod Touch, and in general, we are very impressed. We found the process of choosing and downloading apps to be easy and quick, and most of the programs to be useful or entertaining. The vast majority are 

with great graphics and effective, simple user with great graphics and effective, simple user interfaces. 

The wide availability of so many programs written by developers beyond Apple itself makes the iPhone a true computing platform, like a pocket-sized Windows or Macintosh PC. With so many programs already available, and many more in the pipeline, iPhone and Touch owners can have a device with fresh, different capabilities every day. 

But the process isn’t perfect. For one thing, it is controlled by Apple, which can theoretically bar a program from distribution or take its time making one available. 

There are also some glitches. If you download a lot of apps in a short period, it can slow the phone’s next synchronization with iTunes to a crawl, while iTunes tries to back up all the new programs, each of which can contain numerous hidden files. 

And there’s a bug in the new iPhone operating system that causes apps to crash, and can even force the iPhone or Touch to reboot, if you use a large number of the new apps in quick succession. Apple says it is working on fixing the latter problem. 

Also, Apple’s claim of more than 900 programs is somewhat misleading, because more than 100 of those are individual books you can read on the phone. 

Apple’s baby isn’t the first smart phone that has attracted developers. Thousands of third-party programs already exist for Nokia phones, BlackBerrys and phones running the Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems. But, compared with the graphically rich, snappy iPhone apps — many of which fetch data from the Internet at high speed — the typical program on these older platforms looks positively primitive. 

The App Store can be accessed either from the device itself or from Apple’s iTunes software on a Windows or Mac computer, which then transfers the app to the iPhone or Touch. The programs cover a wide range. 

Some fill in obvious holes in Apple’s original complement of iPhone software, things the iPhone has lacked that other phones have. These include AOL Instant Messenger, a variety of task and to-do lists, sophisticated note-takers and a voice-dialer. There are numerous versions of popular board, card and word games, like solitaire, mahjong, Scrabble and Sudoku. There are also eye-popping iPhone versions of popular video games, some controlled by the phone’s motion detectors, which allow you to move cars and characters by just tilting the phone.

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Canada-based technology giant Research in Motion (RIM) has made announcement about the launching of its new smartphone ‘Blackberry Bold’ in Austria with the intention to take on rival Apple’s iPhone 3G.Targeting business segment, the newly launched 3G-enabled phone comes packed with a half-VGA LCD display with 480×320 resolution, full QWERTY keyboard, powerful 624 MHz processor and 1GB internal storage memory.Moreover, it boasts excellent multimedia features pertaining to video and pictures and assures to offer up rich stereo type sound via double speakers or using earphones.According to Blackberry the phone integrates enterprise plus personal features that may be used during mealtime, evenings and weekends. Mr. Don Morrison, RIM chief operating officer stated, “The BlackBerry Bold is a breakthrough smartphone for both professional and personal use. We are very pleased to be working with A1 to provide Austrian customers with a superior mobile experience that further enhances the renowned functionality and usability of the industry leading BlackBerry solution.”Other astounding features of the phone includes 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability; built-in flash; Digital zoom; advanced media-player with 11 preset filters that includes lounge; jazz, hip-hop; integrated GPS; Bluetooth 2.0; e-mail access coupled with attachment viewing and support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and Bluetooth peripherals.The phone will be launched in United Kingdom through T-mobile by next month (September 2008).

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Buyers snap up quality-built, energy efficient smaller homes

Staff and Wire Report

Peter Moon’s family of six snuggles into bench seats for dinners together. Their house is 1,100 square feet, a bit smaller than two squash courts. “We really don’t need more space,” said Moon, a 46-year-old software designer. “I don’t mind being cozy.”

Moon said he and his wife dumped a much larger home in Boston three years ago to seek a simpler, greener life in Kirkland, Wash. Moon recently persuaded his parents to sell their 2,000-square-foot house on New York’s Long Island and retire to a small neighboring cottage.

“We’ve lived in bigger, older houses, but this is by far the most livable,” Moon said. “There’s no place to accumulate junk.”

The designers of the Moon family house, Ross Chapin and Jim Soules, think small in a way that is practically un-American. They build tract houses that are half the size of the average U.S. home and cost a lot more per square foot. What is surprising is how quickly they sell them. The men are building their fortunes with buyers willing to pay more for less. Customers, such as the Moons, say they prefer taking up less room and using less energy.

Chapin, an architect, and Soules, a developer, met by chance in 1996, when nearly everyone else in the housing market was thinking big. Now, as the surplus of unsold McMansions increases, other developers are starting to lean their way.

In the past decade, the two men have built about four dozen Craftsman-style cottages that range in size from 800- to 1,500-square-feet. The houses are squeezed into five boutique-sized tracts, all within a two-hour drive of Seattle. Some were melded into more spacious suburbs under zoning laws modified to ease density restrictions for small houses. Most were built around a grass commons shared by a dozen or so like-minded residents who boast of their tract’s smallish carbon footprint.

Some builders in the Volusia-Flagler market are following the trend of smaller houses, albeit without the steeper prices of Chapin’s and Soules’ bungalows.

“We generally used to build 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot homes until about a year ago, but most are now 1,200 to 1,300 square feet,” said Craig Olson, president of HeartBilt Homes in Orange City. “We’re trying to keep the payments down so it costs the same to buy or rent.”

Olson said his company is targeting the first-time homebuyers, with three-bedroom, two-bath houses starting at $107,400 on a buyer’s lot. That 1,178-square-foot house will have a 10-year structural warranty, knock-down ceilings, Energy Star appliances and energy-efficient features, such as double-pane windows, throughout.

Bob Fitzsimmons, chief executive of Gallery Homes of DeLand, is using similar techniques in his company’s houses. Gallery’s smallest house is 1,129 square feet while still comprising three bedrooms and two baths. Like HeartBilt’s smallest model, Gallery’s house has a one-car garage. But all of Gallery’s models, like HeartBilt’s, include some upscale touches and Energy Star appliances.

Fitzsimmons said the decision to go smaller was “to make it affordable, number one.”

“The more you put into a house, the more you have to charge,” he said. “You have got to look at what people can afford, and build a product they can afford.”

Gallery’s smallest model — the company also has two other, larger floor plans — costs $105,900, not counting the lot.

Developers in Milwaukee, Boston, Indianapolis and elsewhere are looking to spread the idea of smaller houses, and for good reason. While falling home prices and sluggish sales have slashed new housing starts by a quarter in the past year, Chapin and Soules said they field a dozen calls a week asking, “When’s your next project?” They have one house left for sale, a two-bedroom, two-bath cottage of 1,000 square feet in Redmond, Wash., the home of Microsoft. At $599,950, it isn’t cheap. The median price last month for a single-family home in the neighborhood was $542,500. Residents of the tiny tracts say they don’t mind paying a premium for such touches are hardwood floors and custom cabinets because the two men develop more than just housing.

“We walk into each others’ houses and borrow sugar and do all the kinds of things you did in the 1950s,” said Pat Hundhausen, a retired special education teacher. Her Umatilla Hill development, like the others, is a throwback to the bungalow courtyard, a design that appeared in the 1920s, before traditional, single-family tract housing gave form to postwar suburbia. Hundhausen and her husband left Waukesha, Wis., their hometown of 40 years, after visiting friends a couple of years ago in Umatilla Hill. It took the couple less than a week to buy a nearby lot.

The small-home buyers are a mix of single professionals, young families and retired empty-nesters. While aspirants to the traditional American Dream seek ever bigger, more secluded homes, residents here say they prefer making do with less. Getting to know the neighbors is a bonus. Todd Staheli and his wife are raising two daughters in a 998-square-foot house surrounded by people they greet by name. “There are a lot of eyes on them as they ride their scooters and bikes,” says Mr. Staheli.

The houses are painted in Easter-egg pastels of salmon, yellow and avocado green, adding to the tract’s storybook feel. Residents tend thickets of poppies, lavender, catmint, roses and lilies. Their front-yard gardens are surrounded by a knee-high fence, leading out to a sidewalk and the grass commons. Single-car garages are built along an edge of the tracts, which are usually set back from a main street or connected by private road.

“It feels like you’re in this oasis when you walk home, even though you’re close to a major shopping center, a bus line and a college,” said Eileen McMackin, who lives at the Greenwood Avenue Cottages in Shoreline, Wash.

Chapin, the architect, uses clever design tricks to give the houses the illusion of more space. Corner windows add light and better views. Large skylights in the upstairs loft keep sloped ceilings from feeling cramped. Hollowed-out interior walls provide built-in bookshelves and cubbies for pictures and knickknacks. Every crawlspace is used for storage. He worked with Mr. Soules to give the houses their signature retro look.

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