Recent Comments:
Verizon getting a CDMA iPhone that runs Windows Mobile, clears acne {Engadget}
Sep 29th 2008 7:43PM @Brad:
I think you're confusing two different technologies even though they share the same acronym.
In 2G, there were many players but the top two were GSM and CDMA.
CDMA went on to evolve to CDMA2000 & EV-DO.
GSM/GPRS/EDGE evolved to WCDMA, HSDPA & HSUPA.
If you followed news last year, people talked about 3 emerging techs: UMB (from CDMA2000), LTE (from WCDMA), and WiMAX. But, over the past year, UMB news has dropped off almost entirely. What happened?
Qualcomm is what happened. They're the guys that helped significantly to make CDMA and had a huge influence in 3G tech. But, they got greedy and started charging vendors an arm and a leg to license their tech. They also started suing everyone for patent infringement (u can find a few "Qualcomm vs. Nokia" posts on Engadget.) In short, they made themselves a lot of enemies, and CDMA is taking the hit. CDMA is the dying tech, and will die long before GSM does. Even CDMA's biggest customer, Verizon, saw the writing on the wall and jumped shipped to LTE.
To answer the subscriber base issue, I'll link two sites that follow CDMA's (including EV-DO) and GSM's (including W-CDMA, HSPA) subscriber base.
For CDMA, CDMA2000, EV-DO:
http://www.cdg.org/
On their front page, they say that they have 450,000,000 CDMA2000 subscribers and an additional 100,000,000 EV-DO subscribers.
For GSM, EDGE, W-CDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA:
http://www.3gamericas.org/English/index.cfm
Their front page simply says 3,000,000,000 GSM (and its successors) subscribers and growing.
When you look at these numbers and Qualcomm's behavior over the past few years, it's not hard to see why Apple chose GSM for its iPhone and why it likely won't put in a CDMA chipset.
But hey, I hope I'm wrong. I've been waiting for Korea's KTF or SKT (WCDMA carriers) to pick up the iPhone. If Apple makes a CDMA version, then LGT (EV-DO carrier) can make a bid, and maybe I'll be able to get an iPhone in Korea.
/crosses fingers
iriver's Mplayer: now in soul-invading "eyes" version {Engadget}
Sep 29th 2008 5:10PM 내 눈!! 본안경을 쓰는 의미가 없다!!
Translation: My eyes!! The goggles do nothing!!
Verizon getting a CDMA iPhone that runs Windows Mobile, clears acne {Engadget}
Sep 29th 2008 4:55PM yeah... Or apple could invest in that $100,000 in improving their current 3g model (flash, mms, copy and paste, etc.)
One thing people seem to be forgetting is how big the GSM market is. CDMA has a subscriber base of several hundred million people. GSM has billions. Apple's MO has always been to target the masses. If they wanted to please everyone, they would have put more codec support in their iPods, or improve its audio quality.
And having WinMO on the iPhone is very doubtful. Apple refuses to pay to put Flash on their phones. Why on Earth would they pay for another OS when theirs is just as good, if not better??
Sprint goes live with XOHM WiMAX service in downtown Baltimore {Engadget}
Sep 29th 2008 8:36AM People from Baltimore need something to distract them from the disaster that is Peter Angelos' reign as owner of the O's...
Sprint goes live with XOHM WiMAX service in downtown Baltimore {Engadget}
Sep 29th 2008 8:31AM WiMAX is actually a part of "IMT-2000", which is what everyone in the mobile industry accepts as "3G" technology. People like to throw around the "4G" term, but it hasn't been defined yet by the ITU. Even LTE is applying for official recognition as a part of "IMT-2000".
Off topic, when I tell most of my friends in Korea I'm from Baltimore, most of say, "Oh! Isn't that the place in 'Hairspray'?" Now, I can tell them, "Yes... but it's also home to Sprint's first XOHM network." Of course, then they'll ask me "What's XOHM?", but it's better than just having my hometown recognized from a musical...
Megapixel race hits the mobile realm {Engadget}
Sep 28th 2008 6:34PM Am I the only who finds it ironic that the post quotes an LG exec but posts a pic of a Samsung phone?
In Korea:
Anycall = Samsung
Cyon = LG
The more you know.
Samsung's freakishly large Haptic 2 touchscreen phones {Engadget}
Sep 26th 2008 10:06AM It's about time LG/Samsung had some respectable eye candy to go along with the gadgets. Some of the other models posted in the past few months have been downright scary...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/25/lgs-n4b1-nas-auto-archives-your-junk-to-blu-ray/
Anyway, the phone does look really nice. I found some Korean sites that said that the phone also supports Bluetooth 2.0 and has a memory slot (probably micro SD), which supports an additional 8GB.
Ask Engadget: What gadget(s) to get on my one trip to Asia? {Engadget}
Sep 25th 2008 11:16PM If you are in Seoul and looking for a notebook, go to Yongsan Station in the middle of the city. They have a very large marketplace for electronics there, and prices are usually negotiable. They should also give you a discount if you pay in cash.
There are some department stores that sell some Apple products, but the A# store in COEX has all Apple products in Korea.
But, if you have any Korean friends, get them to help you look for stuff online. It's cheaper and shipping is 1-2 days.
Down for everyone or just you? AT&T experiencing a major data outage on the East Coast. {Engadget}
Sep 3rd 2008 10:25AM @winikeh: That wouldn't have happened. The 3G iPhone uses a WCDMA chipset. Verizon uses CDMA2000.
Basically, the iPhone uses GSM/EDGE and WCDMA, which is used is most places in the world. CDMA2000 is used in a small fraction in comparison (most of that is Verizon, too.) So, it was a no brainer for Apple to concentrate on WCDMA for 3G. Too bad they seem to have trouble integrating the 3G chip and getting it to play nice in the iPhone.
XOHM's next stops: Boston, Philly, Dallas {Engadget}
Sep 3rd 2008 10:01AM WiMAX is still 3G...
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2007/30.html
Also, your reception depends more on how much power the wireless providers put into their antennas. Antennas can give you a strong signal and weak coverage area, or vice versa. Companies usually go with the latter in the outlying areas cause it's much cheaper.
What would be better is a coverage from a lower band like 700MHz since a signal on a lower band can go through objects more easily. But 700MHz won't be cleared for another 5 months, and it will be a while before we see any systems take advantage of this.
