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Uber adds VoIP calling option to its app
Uber now allows riders and drivers to communicate over voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in addition to SMS texts, in-app messaging and regular phone calls. The Verge reports that Uber announced the global availability of the VoIP feature at a conference in San Francisco today. The ride-hailing firm has also confirmed the feature to Engadget.
Denver has the fastest WiFi of any airport in North America
Airports are some of the most miserable places on earth. On top of being charged way too much for food and booze, solid internet connections can be dodgy whether you're connecting to provided WiFi or your cellular network. The folks at Speedtest have done us all a favor and surveyed the offerings at North American airports to suss out the worst to the... surprisingly not-worst. Interestingly enough, a state that legalized recreational marijuana also has the highest uploads and downloads. Denver International boasts 78.22 Mbps downloads and 78.29 Mbps on average, with Speedtest reporting that this actually increased by over 25 percent since its last look.
iOS 7 video tip: See which apps use the most cellular data
Today's iOS 7 video tip comes by way of Macworld's Lex Friedman, who pointed out that the new mobile operating system includes a way of finding out just how much cellular data each app uses. This tip extends to system service data usage, and provides a way to disable specific apps from using cellular data. Here's our short video tip, which you can expand to full-screen for easier viewing:
iPhone owners have the highest cellular bills among smartphone users
Carriers may not like iPhone users who consume a lot of data, but they cannot complain about the whopping bills these customers pay each month. According to a survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) and reported by AllThingsD, almost 60 percent of iPhone users pay more than US$100 per month for their wireless plan. A surprising 10 percent pay more than $200 per month to keep their iPhones always connected, while only 6 percent are on a budget plan that costs $25 to $50 per month. Android users, on the other hand, tend to pay less for their wireless service plans, with 14 percent rocking bills that cost less that $50 per month. Only 7 percent break the bank with bills that balloon to over $200 per month. CIRP co-founder Michael Levin says iPhone owners pay more because the iPhone traditionally has been offered on the major wireless carriers in the US. "We think it has to do with their data plans and carriers, rather than their usage habits," explained Levin. "They are all on expensive data plans, unlike Android users, some of which are on prepaid or unsubsidized plans with regional carriers."
Apple to add 36 new LTE carriers
According to an announcement made by Apple CEO Tim Cook during yesterday's Q1 2013 earnings call, next week will be an auspicious one for users of iOS devices that support the fast LTE mobile data standard. During the week, 36 wireless carriers worldwide will be added to the 24 already providing LTE support for the iPhone 5, third- and fourth-generation iPad and iPad mini. Those carriers, according to Cook, are in "countries that were previously not supporting LTE." The rollout will provide LTE service to over 300 million subscribers in Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, several Middle Eastern countries and more. Up until this time, owners of iOS devices supporting the LTE standard have not been able to take advantage of the fast connection speeds. The news may provide solace to Wall Street analysts, who were concerned that support for iPhone LTE coverage had been slow in coming.
Verizon iPhone 5 update fixes mobile data use on WiFi bug
Verizon customers received an unexpected bonus when they opted for the latest iPhone, but in an unfortunate case of carrier Karma, the necessary sacrifice was their mobile data. An update has been issued to fix a Verizon-specific bug which, "under certain circumstances," used cellular data when connected to WiFi. To plug the potential leak, you'll need to head to the About screen in the phone's Settings, General menu, where you should find a update prompt. Install, then -- importantly -- reboot, and if "Verizon 13.1" shows as your carrier in that same About tab, you know you're safe. We'd also recommend checking your data allowance with crossed fingers -- for what use is LTE if you've already hit your monthly cap?
iOS 6 ships with WiFi plus cellular feature missing
Back in August, much buzz arose about a new iOS 6 feature. WiFi plus Cellular promised to allow apps having trouble with WiFi to connect using cellular data. This option promised to allow devices to tap into their data plan upon encountering shaky WiFi connections. As Megan Lavey-Heaton wrote this Summer, This scenario can occur you've made a WiFi connection and it turns out to be pretty bad. The connection to the router is solid, but the Internet itself is pretty horrid -- case in point, most hotel rooms I've stayed in the past couple of years. Benjamin cites cases where you're making the transition between a place with WiFi, such as your home or a coffee shop, and places without. There's a middle ground where you're barely hanging onto a WiFi connection. Fast forward to the Autumn, and iOS 6's release. For anyone installing iOS 6, and navigating to Settings > General > Cellular, you would have seen this instead. The options go directly from "Personal Hotspot" to "Use Cellular Data for". Sometime between the final iOS 6 golden master release and the public distro, Apple pulled the plug on WiFi Plus Cellular. We have contacted Apple for comment but do not expect a reply. This is a disappointment for many users, who we think would have welcomed a flexible approach to flaky WiFi connections. If you're a developer who installed the initial GM, you've probably lucked out. The final dev release's Cellular settings screen looks like this.
Arduino GSM/GPRS Shield gets helping hand from Telefonica for data, remote control
Arduino devices have had the option of a GSM linkup for awhile, but getting that cellular link to truly strut its stuff hasn't always been easy, even for those of us who'd be inclined to program an Arduino in the first place. Enter Telefonica, which wants to be the backbone of your internet of things. It's backing a new version of the GSM/GPRS Shield add-on (shown here) by offering both the expected machine-to-machine SIMs for the cellular connection as well as freshly added remote control of the board through the carrier's BlueVia pages. The Shield itself is getting a quiet upgrade in the process -- the software both takes up a smaller footprint and can now talk to the world in the background while the Arduino keeps on keepin' on. If you happen to be in Berlin, the new Shield is making the rounds at Campus Party workshops until April 25th. Neither side has said how readily available the new part will be available after that; for now, you can familiarize yourself with the current technology at the source link.
AT&T unveils Mobile Share, lets you add 10 devices to a single plan
We knew it was coming and even Ralph de la Vega himself publicly admitted that it was in the pipeline, but today AT&T has whipped the covers from its new shared data plans. Mobile Share will enable customers to use a single data allocation across all of their devices, with unlimited calls and text. You're entitled to use up to 10 devices on a single plan, of which at least one must be a smartphone. Users can pick how much data they expect to use each month, paying an additional levy to add the rest of their family's handsets (or just your own, if you're Steve Wozniak). Fortunately, tethering is included as part of the plans. The new plans will roll out in late August and will sit alongside the current individual and family offerings, with the company allowing current customers to make a switch without forcing them into a contract extension. AT&T also noted that those lucky customers that are still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan can stay on those plans, even if they upgrade to a new phone at the subsidized on-contract cost. We've got the pricing structure and PR for you for you after the break if you're sweaty-palmed in anticipation for the launch.
Apple's FaceTime finally goes cellular, says so long to WiFi restrictions
We've been waiting for it, and Apple surely took its sweet time to give it to us, but at WWDC 2012, FaceTime was finally let loose from its WiFi bonds, leaving us all free to video chat over cellular data. This is great news for all those Apple fans who resolutely refused to use similar services from Skype, Tango, or Google, that have been around for ages now. As for us? Well, we'd say it's better late than never. For more coverage of WWDC 2012, please visit our event hub!
Nikkei: PSP2 will have 3G cellular data, OLED touchscreen
We're only four days away from a supposed January 27th unveiling, but apparently there are still more juicy PSP2 rumors left to dole out -- Japan's often-reliable Nikkei newspaper reports that the handheld machine will sport a crisp OLED touchscreen and 3G data from NTT DoCoMo when it arrives later this year, with the latter enabling multiplayer action and even full video and game downloads over the Japanese cellular network. What's more, the paper confirms that the screen will be physically larger and powered by some potent new silicon. So, how will Sony differentiate this PSP2 from the PlayStation Phone and tempt you to buy both? The game system won't make calls. Note: In case you're not familiar, the image above is a relatively ancient reader mockup, and likely not representative of the final product. It is pretty sexy, though.
iPhone cellular data not working? Try resetting your network settings
The "Reset Network Settings" button on the iPhone not only resets your Wi-Fi settings -- resulting in a clean slate with respect to Wi-Fi access points and their passwords -- it also resets your phone carrier settings. Several months back, I had the darndest trouble with cellular data access. I could place and receive calls, but couldn't get cellular data access no matter what I did. I tried going into and out of airplane mode, turning the phone on and off, and resetting it, all with no luck. So I decided to call AT&T. Apparently, one of the cell phone towers near my office was having trouble and fell out of and back into commission. And although the tower was back up and running, my iPhone was stuck in cellular data purgatory. AT&T support suggested that resetting the network settings on the device would likely resolve the issue: and it did. Resetting network settings has also helped me resolve an issue I was having with Visual Voicemail on another occasion. To reset your iPhone's network settings, tap your way to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. With great power also comes great annoyances, like having to reconnect to previously remembered access points and having to re-enter passwords.
What's up with the iPhone Carrier Update?
If you checked for updates for your US-based iPhone in iTunes in the last day or two, you should have seen this: The standard Apple explanation from the Knowledge Base: iTunes 7.7 and later has the ability to update the carrier specific settings on iPhone with iPhone 2.0 software or later. Carrier settings updates are small files (about 10k) that are downloaded from iTunes to be installed on your iPhone. The carrier settings can include updates to the default APN (how iPhone accesses the carrier's cellular data network), special dialing codes at Settings > Phone > [Carrier] Services, default settings for Stocks, Maps, Weather, and other items. So what's actually in this update? Logo replacements, apparently, for AT&T's upcoming MicroCell service (at the time of this writing, the page is in maintenance mode). 2 images, light and dark versions of the image on the left (courtesy of MobileCrunch). Commenters at The iPhone Blog also confirm the revised connectivity image. Our own commenters note that Apple has added settings for the Mobily network (Saudi Arabia) and Etisalat (United Arab Emirates) in this update as well, which adds weight to the expected 2/15 launch of the iPhone in those countries. Editor's Note: Canadian and European customers report no carrier update for them, which is understandable considering the AT&T-centric content of this update. To all of our international readers, if we got you all excited about this update, our apologies for your disappointment. With the exception of Jason, we don't have non-US iPhones to test with, so we often can't say for sure whether a specific update is universal or domestic-only.
