From Geek to Chic: Decade evolving smartphone

Ars This article summarizes a decade in the U.S. market the most representative of 20 cell phones, and domestic situation is different, but it may well be an interesting reference (on the part of the original Razr inaccurate translations are deleted.)  What if the model you like, but not mentioned above, please comment - please write also like it because.

 Over the past decade, smart phones from the big hair, hanging in the minority on the belt plaything developed into the mass market mobile computing platform. The mid-90s, "PDA + phone" has become the ultimate mobile Internet Shuangsha, such as the early IBM Simon and Nokia Communicator.  After 2000, with the cellular data technology, mobile processor, touch screen matures, these devices are also increasingly improved.

 This photo album paper, we represented each of two models reviewed in the past decade or so the history of smart phones.  While Apple's iPhone and Android phone in the back five years to hold a dominant, but an impressive number of other models, including the Nokia Communicator series, Palm Treo and Motorola Droid.

2000/2001 2000/2001

Ericsson R380: Ericsson R380 - P800 and P900 series predecessor, was the first Symbian phone, it was also appearing on the market that it is the first smart phone.

 Nokia 9120 Communicator: Nokia Communicator 1996 product launch of 9000 series, 9120 is the first color screen phone.  Nokia gave up its original GEOS Intel 386 processor and operating system, based on ARM9 core Symbian.  Nokia 9000 series on the many features have become common features of today's smart phones.

2002 2002

 Handspring Treo 180: Very few people remember Handspring, which Palm is the founder of the company's founder.  Palm Handspring introduced himself unable or unwilling to launch the Palm OS phone.  For example, Handspring introduced the first color Palm OS devices, has introduced the first PalmOS operating system for mobile phones, the first of the Treo 180 is a flip phone, the phone in the form of continuation of the PalmOS's PDA capabilities.  Soon after, Palm acquired Handspring, Treo next few years have become the top smartphone.

Sony Ericsson P800: Sony Ericsson mobile phone sector consolidation, the establishment of the Sony Ericsson.  Cooperation Ericsson products Sony into a clear style, the first result is the first camera phone with a P800.

2003 2003

 T-Mobile's Pocket PC Phone Edition: T-mobile for Pocket PC Phone Edition is the first Windows Mobile (later known as Pocket PC) smart phones.  Because of the desktop Windows systems integration and enterprise messaging system on the support of Exchange and Office, Windows Mobile device users in the very popular business.

 Palm Treo 600: the founder of the recall after a restless, Palm released the Treo 600.  Clamshell design is more compact candy bar style place, hardware enhancements include full backlit QWERTY keyboard, color screen and low-resolution camera.  In the next 3-4 years, Treo smart phone market dominated by the United States.

2004 2004

 BlackBerry 6210: RIM earlier in this decade, when to launch a variety of BlackBerry phones, the company's popular business-level increase of two-way pagers cellular phones and e-mail functions.  However, as 6120 is the first mobile phone - the model before the headset needs to be connected to the call.  Many executives will be as fascinated by CrackBerry connectivity.

 Palm Treo 650: Treo product line remained strong in 2004, 650 will increase the screen resolution to 320 × 320, an increase of Bluetooth is in childhood, also increase data transmission capacity to EDGE / CDMA standards.  Palm Treo product line in some of the small upgrades, a complete failure until later, when the user has moved to a more stylish touch-screen units, such as the iPhone and Android.

2005 2005

 Motorola Razr V3: thin, laser etched, brushed aluminum casing, the Motorola Razr is that many Americans first smartphone. It is highest in the forefront of U.S. mobile phone sales charts over many years, growing ranks of operators and price-cutting strategy to become the optimal choice for several years.

 

 HP iPAQ 6500: iPAQ from Pocket PC PDA, but the subsequent increase in the cellular phone HP hardware and turned it into a smart phone. Windows Mobile 6500 and the Treo 650 has had stiff competition, 6500 increased by EDGE data connection, but, strangely enough, the lack of WiFi and camera. Variant models behind these features added.

2006 2006

 Danger Hiptop 3 / T-mobile Sidekick 3: Danger's Hiptop T-mobile smart phones sold by the time called the Sidekick, the celebrities, high-tech geek and young people (the IM program and the relationship between QWERTY full keyboard) is very popular .  Manufactured by Sharp third-generation hardware, with built-in ability to download programs that can be profitable - a pattern that later because of the emergence of iPhone application store fame.

 HTC / Cingular 8525: HTC Android smart phone by well-known, such as T-mobile's G1, and Verizon's Droid and Incredible. OEM HTC manufactured by way of the early to Windows Mobile touch screen phones, Cingular 8250 is one of them.

2007 2007

 Apple iPhone: 2007 mid, Apple released the iconic iPhone, overnight, changed the pattern of the smart phone market.  Although the lack of first-generation iPhone 3G network support, only through Web (HTML and JavaScript Jobs joked that the iPhone SDK) released applications.  Mobile Safari WebKit core set for the mobile Internet, a high threshold, Apple maintains a dominant position through the device, rather than the operator determines function - although the status of this control for Apple to pay the 5 years the United States only with AT & T Cooperation price.

 Nokia N95: Nokia N95 smart phone hardware configuration has now become the most popular smart phone configuration: 500 million pixels with LED flash autofocus camera, GPS transceiver, WiFi, Bluetooth, the front for video calls camera , video output and so on.  N95 also supports the local programs and JavaME and Symbian mobile Flash.

2008 2008

 Apple iPhone 3G: Apple for the iPhone 3G adds more high-speed UMTS data connection, then just emerging UMTS in the United States. Apple also opened up the third-party developers to iPhone, in July launched application store, and the rest is the mobile developers to create history.

 HTC Dream / T-mobile G1: HTC launched the first Android smartphone continues its OEM manufacturers in the smart phone's position. T-mobile phone in the United States by the starter, called the G1 - meaning the first "Google-powered" smart phones.

2009 2009

 Motorola Droid: Verizon received from the Lucasfilm there, "Droid" authorization to open a successful campaign, Android phones will incorporated into the product line. Marketing impetus for "Droid" Android phone in the U.S. equivalent, but also to Android become the most popular platform for the U.S. market. Droid recent upgrades are some minor changes, also confirmed the design's success.

。 Palm Pre: Palm Treo product line with the first smart phone to become a leader, but soon by Apple and other competitors, tremendous pressure, it can not be developed under the pressure of a new generation of products. Management of innovation and some high-profile talent from Apple hired the system eventually gave birth to webOS Palm Pre.  Although the changes are not Pre HP acquired fate, but innovative developer webOS can show HTML, CSS, and JavaScript technologies such as the ability to play.

2010 2010

 Apple iPhone 4: iPhone 4 external antenna design problems? This hampers the iPhone 4 as the world's best-selling smart phone it? 一点儿也没。 Not a bit. Apple iPhone improved almost every aspect, including the A4 processor, "print quality" IPS screen positive for FaceTime video calls camera, 500-megapixel camera - can beat almost every smartphone on the market. Strong support of developers, Apple's platform, the goal continues to become competitors.

 Samsung Galaxy S: Over the past year, issued a number of Android smart phone, but Samsung's Galaxy S Series is very unique - Samsung almost by every major U.S. carriers released different versions.Unlike other smart phones, Galaxy S's in each carrier has a change of a specific application - whether it is Verizon, AT & T or T-mobile. Sprint also introduced in support of 4G, QWERTY sliding keyboard version.

Apple collaborating with Amazon, Google, and Cingular on new iReader?

UPDATE: some people didn't get that this entire post was an April Fools joke. Sorry for being too realistic.

I was going to not blog until Monday, but I saw something today that just has to be blogged about. Seriously, on Monday I'll be on CNN with Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke talking about this week's events. I spoke against more rules or other infringments on our freedom of speech. No matter how vile or disgusting that speech is. That said, I reserve my right to take a week off to point out the rotten strawberries sitting on our meme shelf.

Back to what I saw: today we were eating at Sam's Chowder House in Half Moon Bay when I saw someone down on the beach using a device I didn't recognize. Being a geek I quickly ran down to the beach to see what it was. Turns out he was an Apple executive (he asked me not to name him) and tried to hide the device when I came near, but I eventually talked him into showing it off to me.

Apple, he told me, is looking to bring out an iPhone family of devices that'll extend your iPhone into new usage patterns. The device that he was carrying around was built by a long-rumored Tablet team inside Apple. The executive also had an early iPhone production sample — we'll talk about that later and how it works with this new device.

Remember the Sony Reader? Well, it's sorta like that. It uses a similar screen. Why? Cause Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ives found that they couldn't comfortably use their iPhones in bright sunlight. Especially to read long portions of text. Since Jobs is an avid book reader, and Ives reads a ton of RSS feeds (the executive says he brags that he reads as many feeds as Scoble) they were looking for a new device that'd make it possible to read, while using the wireless features of the iPhone.

Anyway the device looked just like the Sony Reader, except it was white. It also was slightly longer than a Sony Reader cause it's has a keyboard, Blackberry style, at the bottom of the device. It also has a red stripe along the side that contains an innovative navigation device so you can click on certain parts of documents, or links in those parts, to visit other pages. That "iStrip" is what makes it possible to read RSS feeds and click on links.

But that's about where the similarities with the Sony Reader end. The device has nice, large buttons on either side of the screen to go forward and back between pages. It also has a keyboard. And, comes with some really unique software that go way beyond what Sony offers.

First, there are two models. One costs $499 and works wirelessly with an iPhone. The other is $599 and comes with a built-in Cingular wireless modem (and free service for a year).

Then on the device there's a really nice UI (it's Apple, remember!) Lets you get quickly to books, feeds, newspapers, magazines.

I only had time to try some feeds and books. The book reader is magical. You can buy any Amazon ebook and have it delivered to the machine in about one minute, thanks to the Bluetooth networking capability with the iPhone. I bought a copy of Long Tail and was reading it in just a little more than 70 seconds. Much easier than going to Borders and picking up a physical copy.

Then I was paging through the book. The screen was bright, sharp (thanks to new font sharpening technology that makes the fonts 30% sharper than similar technology from Microsoft called "ClearType." He said they found out a new way of filtering visual noise out that makes our eyes perceive the font as sharper.)

He told me that Amazon built the book buying and reading software, together with an Apple team, and you can buy a variety of books instantly using the wireless capabilities. It was easy to use and beautiful. I instantly wanted one to read books on. When you see this device you'll probably write "paper books are dead."

Each page doesn't appear instantly, as it does on an LCD screen. Instead this screen technology actually has really tiny balls that spin over to reveal either black or white (or up to 256 shades of gray — he said a color version is in development but won't come out until 2008). The advantage to using this kind of screen? It works in bright sunlight, like at the beach. It also takes very little power and never is turned off. Once the device generates an image on the screen it no longer needs any power. He told me he read four books already without charging the battery (more than a dozen hours of constant reading).

The device was totally remarkable. I want one. He told me they probably would ship in July or August "we need some reason for you to come back into an Apple store after you pick up your iPhone in June."

Oh, I forgot about the feed reader. It's a unique version of Google's Reader, built to use the "iStrip" navigation device. It'll come by default with some feeds, they aren't sure how many. I saw TechCrunch. LifeHacker. BoingBoing. Digg. Scripting News. I signed in with my name and the device instantly was synched up with feeds I hadn't yet read either. One other thing I noticed is that there was a "Steve Jobs blog." The exec grabbed it out of my hands when I was about to read that.

Well, I went back up to Sam's Chowder House, told everyone about the new device, told Maryam that she's going to need to wait on the crib purchase, cause I had to have one this summer. Our new baby can sleep on the floor, I figure, our gadget budget is just gonna have to get strained more this summer than I was planning on.

My 13-year-old son Patrick's reaction? (He's a total Apple freak). "You had me there dad until you said Steve Jobs was doing a blog. That was really stretching it."

UPDATE: Happy 10th Anniversary to Dave Winer's Scripting News (and that's no April Fools' joke!)

Oh, and I am not going to post any more April Fools' stuff to my link blog. There are SOME legitimate news items to send through the system today.

Cell phone or Service - Which comes first?

What comes first?

Most people want to pick the coolest phone they can find and then choose a service plan. However, that course often does not work well, since not every phone works with every wireless network.

What comes first -- the phone or the service plan?

The answer is "It depends."

 

First-time Buyers and General Users

For a first-time user, it is better to choose your plan first, then the phone. Because choosing the wrong plan can cost you extra money each month, while the phone is a one-time decision. In addition, most carriers offer a full range of phones for each service plan, from inexpensive to full-featured. Unless you have your heart set on a specific, hot new phone, go for the plan first.

Wireless systems in the USA (unlike Europe and Asia) are not compatible with one another. This means that a Sprint PCS phone, for example, won't be compatible with VoiceStream Wireless or AT&T Wireless service. Even if you just want to switch carriers, you will probably need to buy a new phone.

 

Experienced Users

For experienced users and high-tech junkies, you can start from chooing your favorite cellular phone. Based on your phone, you may choose you applicable rate plans, but first-time buyers may find this harder.