Rugged smartphone for deep-sea diving builders
I had fun at Mobile World Congress last month demonstrating a new go-anywhere ruggedised phone from Sonim that can withstand being rolled over by a rubbish truck or used as a hammer to knock a nail into wood.
Now AT&T, the second largest US mobile network operator, has launched its first ‘intrinsically safe’ rugged device – the A25is smartphone by Aero Wireless. Read more
Cisco’s new carrier-grade router triples capacity
If your iPhone is still sluggish a few years from now, don’t blame Cisco Systems.
The top networking equipment maker on Tuesday announced a new high-end router for telecom companies that it said could handle three times the internet traffic of its current model at the same $90,000 base price.
Put a few of them together–ok, 72–and you could handle a video call from every man, woman and child in China. Read more
AT&T says people still don’t want the Web on TV
Top wired telecom provider AT&T is clearly doing something right with U-verse TV, its cable-like service delivering more than 100 high-definition television channels over internet pipes to what are now more than 1.8m living rooms.
On Thursday, AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan and others came to San Francisco to show off what may be coming improvements to U-verse, among other things, from the research labs that claim 8 Nobel Prizes. Read more
FT techtalk – Invasion of the data snatchers
Android phones loomed large at the CTIA show in San Diego this week, while the FCC chairman made the trip to the West Coast to warn the wireless industry’s convention of a looming spectrum crisis.
AT&T and others blamed heavy-duty data users and smartphones like the iPhone for a 5,000 per cent increase in data traffic over three years.
It has also been a big week for antitrust cases, as Europe finally ended its battle with Microsoft and the US began one with IBM.
We discussed all of this and more in our weekly FT techtalk – a live, multimedia chat with the FT’s tech correspondents. Read the transcript below and join us again next week – at 0800 Pacific time (1500GMT, 1600BST) here on Friday. Read more
AT&T, next-gen developers move to OnLive
The major video game publishers have switched development of next-generation games from consoles to the OnLive platform of internet-based gaming, according to the service’s founder.
Steve Perlman, (pictured) OnLive chief executive, said his service was also gaining considerable attention from investors, as he announced a major funding round led by AT&T Media Holdings. Read more
techfile 19.6.09
AT&T herds COWs to cope with iPhone overload
It seems there is a downside to AT&T’s exclusive relationship with Apple and the iPhone and it can be summed up in the microcosm of AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team.
As the Wall Street Journal pointed out on Monday, iPhone users are bandwidth hogs. The comScore research firm reported in March that 80 per cent of UK iPhone users were accessing news and information through a browser – four times the rate for all mobile phone users. More than 18 per cent had bought and downloaded a game, compared to 6 per cent of other smartphone owners. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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