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Editorial: The future comes slowly, but revolutions are worth waiting for
During a trip to Switzerland, my family started off on a day hike to reach the nearby foothills of a mountain. It looked doable, but as time passed the range seemed to recede before our approach. After many hours we turned around, having apparently failed to close any distance. Crossing from now to the future in technology can likewise seem illusory. When we scrutinize and celebrate each tiny incremental invention as if it were a milestone, we lose track of time as if we were counting grains of sand dropping through an hourglass. Game-changing inventions are rare, separated by epochs in which progress adds up to a lot of sameness. Futurism is an unforgiving business. But sometimes, as in the cases of cloud computing and media convergence, redemption comes with patience.
Editorial: Apple isn't making a 'converged' laptop / tablet hybrid, but I still want one
Deflated. Disappointed. Let down. Unsurprised. All of those emotions ran through my being at one point or another following Apple CEO Tim Cook's comments regarding "converged" devices, but if anything, his denial has made me all the more hungry for this particular device. For months -- heck, maybe even years -- I've waited for Sir Jonathan Paul Ive and co. to finally nail the concept of a laptop / tablet hybrid. In many ways, Apple managed to get right on a smartphone in 2007 what I felt was wrong holding a BlackBerry. I still think the iPad's screen is about 2.7-inches too large for my own personal tastes, but the world at large has affirmed that it nailed that design, too. Oh, and the MacBook Air? C'mon -- we all know it's the thin-and-light you always wanted, and given that it'll run Windows with poise, it's arguably the sexiest Windows laptop currently on the market. The point? Apple has waited for companies to flounder about with certain designs before, all while perfecting its own take for a future release. Windows-based tablets were flooding out in the early noughties, and believe it or not, Toshiba was already giving the tablet / laptop hybrid thing a whirl in 2003 with the Portege 3500. Apple waited over half a decade to usher in the iPad, and the rest -- as they say -- is history. The iPhone followed a similar path; companies came before it and did their best to produced pleasing, long-lasting, highly usable smartphones, but the iPhone completely changed the trajectory of everything that came after. Love it or hate it, it's hard to imagine a 2012 with Windows Phone in it had Apple not pinned Windows Mobile in a corner back in '07. So, if Apple has shown an ability to thrive with designs that others have experimented with, why is the "converged" laptop / tablet a nonstarter?
AT&T Unity subscribers get more freebies
With the way carriers tend to nickle 'n dime us all these days, you won't find this camp complaining about anything offered up gratis. AT&T's latest round of freebies does require you to be an AT&T Unity subscriber -- meaning that you rely on AT&T for wireless and landline service -- but affords those who are in the loop free calling to and from any AT&T phone number. Moreover, it allows AT&T wireless customers to keep their rollover minutes fresh for 12 months, prevents anytime minute usage when phoning another AT&T customer, and includes unlimited night and weekend minutes. Best of all, these gifts are also being given to current Unity customers in addition to newcomers, so make sure you eye your next bill extra carefully.
ZyXEL launches the V660 smartphone
ZyXEL, makers of fine broadband access equipment, has sauntered into the mobile market with a converged Windows Mobile device with both VoIP and quad band GSM connectivity. The magic here is the clever bit o' routing technology stashed in this otherwise simple looking device; when an open WiFi access point is found -- it also supports WPA / WPA2 / TLS -- it is used instead of the GSM connection to help you save your pennies. The V660 is powered by Windows Mobile 5 (is that 2003 we see in the press shot there?), but with updates popping up everywhere these days, it would be no shock to see it slip out the door mid 2007 packing WM6. The press release doesn't hint at much of anything on the tech side, so we will just have to sit and wait for the numbers -- but we don't expect this to break the bank.[Via Techdigest.tv]
