CrippledPhones
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Nokia N95 sees crippling by UK carriers
Are you one of those Windows Mobile handset VoIP hackboys / hackgirls (wireless Skype, anyone)? How about that voice minute-less wireless VoIP on that Orange or Vodafone Nokia N95 handset? Wait, let's go back a bit -- right back to that Nokia S60 flagship handset in Europe. It appears that Vodafone and Orange in the UK have removed an important feature from carrier-branded N95s there. In what can be considered one extreme example of handset crippling, the two carriers have apparently stripped the N95 on store shelves of is VoIP capability in an attempt to preserve voice revenue. The solution -- as always with GSM carriers -- is to buy the more expensive, unlocked N95 and install your Symbian VoIP client of choice. Did we say we can't stand carrier-branded madness like this?
Professor singles out mobile carriers for stifling cellphone innovation
Do you believe that mobile carriers are to controlling in the actual design (hardware and software) of cellular handsets these days? If so, you'll probably love an opinion paper by Columbia law professor Timothy Wu. Wu suggests that cellphone design and innovation is being inhibited by cellular service providers. We all know why this happens, of course -- the carriers love the walled garden policy of controlling how and why subscribers use their handsets. Usually, the design of a carrier-branded handset is geared to goose subscribers into more services and more add-ons. But, the GSM world knows all to well that "free and open" handsets don't have these annoyances at all, much to the chagrin of the carriers (like AT&T and T-Mobile USA). Are the policies of carriers hurting consumers? Wu makes his case by bringing up features that are blocked by many carriers which come native with many handsets before being disabled by carriers. Features like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, advanced SMS, browsers and photo and sound file transfer capabilities. The biggie that caught our eyes? Real-time call timers. You go, Mr. Wu -- stick it to the man.
