Right-Handed Users May Have Signal Reception Problems on iPhone 4

Most people now know that when using a mobile device, moving the antenna just several feet can sometimes change signal reception. Most people may not know that physical objects such as hands can interfere with signal reception.

It appears Apple's new iPhone 4 may suffer from that problem. Apparently, the iPhone 4 signal strength drops when a user grips the phone by the metal antenna band. Gizmodo has over a dozen videos of users showing off this problem.

When held in the left hand with our fingers touching the metal band, the bars representing signal strength dropped from 5 to 1 in less than a minute.

The problem appears to involve finger-contact on certain parts of the metal band.  When the phone is switched to the  right hand, which put our fingers in different position, the signal strength remained the same. So for many people, user experience may depend on whether they are left-handed or right-handed.

Right-handed people are going to tend to hold the device in the left hand, and navigate with the fingers of the right hand. That means most people are going to be prone to block the signal themselves, simply based on which hand they are using to hold the device.

And you might have thought mobile phone design was easy!

81% of App Store Downloads are "Free"

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimates that 81 percent of downloads from Apple's App Store are free.

His analysis of the Top 50 paid apps reveals that their average selling price is $1.49. Munster estimates that on average, Apple receives $0.29 for every app that's downloaded from its store.

Munster calculates that this means $428 million for Apple based on its 70-30 revenue-share split. Munster estimates that the App Store is generating more than 16.6 million app downloads a day, compared to 8.9 million song downloads from the iTunes Store.

81% of App Store downloads are free, claims analyst | Mobile Entertainment News

GetJar Raises $11 Million

Fast-growing mobile app store GetJar, which says it has had more than one billion apps downloaded from its store to date, making it second in size only to Apple’s app store, has raised $11 million in a second round of funding.

GetJar’s app store includes about 70,000 apps for all of the major mobile operating systems, including Apple’s, although CEO Ilja Laurs tells us that most of the company’s growth is coming from “open” platforms where there is less of an “established and convenient place” to get apps.

He says the company, which he calls the “Wal-Mart for mobile apps,” will invest much of the new cash in building up its presence on the Android platform.

GetJar, The ‘Wal-Mart For Mobile Apps,’ Raises $11 Million | paidContent

Only Issue: Will Apple Sell 1 Million iPhone 4 Devices Today?

The only issue is whether Apple will sell one million iPhone 4 devices today. A couple of obvious questions suggst themselves. Since all the early-adopter technophiles and even early majority users made their decisions long ago, Apple's sales now must come from the "typical" consumer.

Smartphone sales have been climbing for the past couple of years, so the issue is how much of the growth Apple is able to grab. The harder-to-answer question is whether Facetime, the videoconferencing app, which encourage families with widely-scattered members to get the device just for that feature.

Carrier Ethernet Displaces Nearly All Mobile Backhaul Orders

Wireless network operators are requesting fewer T1s and more carrier Ethernet connections for mobile backhaul, and could stop ordering T1s entirely as soon as next year, Tower Cloud Inc. CEO Ron Mudry says.

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U.S. Consumers Show High Interest in Femtocell Services, Survey Finds

More than half of U.S. broadband households with mobile phones are interested in femtocell benefits, and are willing to pay for the devices and associated new services, a survey by Parks Associates, conducted for the Femto Forum has found.

The survey found that fewer than 10 percent of consumers were previously familiar with femtocells. However after hearing a description of the femtocell and its benefits, 56 percent of respondents found femtocells appealing, and two thirds found the technology either “very” or “extremely” appealing. Additionally, 89 percent of those respondents who were already familiar with femtocells  found them appealing.

The primary driver for femtocell interest was improved in-home coverage. Important secondary drivers included increased mobile handset battery life, faster mobile broadband, advanced femtocell services and home-zone calling tariffs.

The survey found that 72 percent of consumers who found femtocells appealing were very interested in at least one advanced femtocell service. Examples of such services include "Virtual Home Number," which rings every cell phone in the home, or "Family Alerts," which warn when a subscriber has left or returned home.

Half of these respondents indicated a willingness to pay $4.99 a month for their single favorite service or $9.99 a month for a bundle of their favorite three services.

Although Wi-Fi is sometimes viewed as a femtocell alternative, the survey showed that 84 percent of people who heavily use Wi-Fi on their 3G devices found femtocells appealing, apparently because of the improved voice coverage and battery life.

Among consumers who consider themselves likely to change operator in the next 12 months, 44 percent said that they would very likely reconsider if their current operator offered a femtocell. Similarly, 35 percent of consumers in multi-operator households said they would likely consolidate their services around a single provider who offered a femtocell.

Demand is highest when upfront device costs are in the $20 to $50 range. This demand is cut in half when device prices are in the $50 to $100 range and halves again when the cost exceeds $100.

“The clear message from this research is that femtocells have widespread appeal and consumers are willing to pay for them," said Harry Wang, director of mobile product research, Parks Associates.

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Verizon Tests 10 Gbps to Home

Verizon says it has managed to push 10 gigabits per second through its FiOS trunking network, including 2 gigabit per second service to a customer’s house with two simultaneously-used PCs.


The XG-PON field trial connected a FiOS customer location with 10 gigabits per second downstream to the home and 2.5 Gbps upstream.

The test demonstrates the capability of the Verizon's FiOS network to accommodate a wide array of new and emerging video services and the growing demand for streaming video content and other bandwidth-intensive applications.

The latest field trial was conducted in May in Taunton, Mass., with a XG-PON system developed by Motorola, a supplier of BPON and GPON optical networking equipment to Verizon.

At the customer's home, the optical network terminal (ONT) received the 10/2.5 Gbps feed and used two data communication ports to simultaneously provide transmission speeds of close to 1 Gbps to each of two PCs inside the home. Combined, the two ports delivered approximately 1.85 Gbps in aggregate bandwidth in each direction.

Tests were designed to simulate what two different customers might experience while using their PCs to download, upload or share files to the Internet when served by a 10G PON system.  In addition, speed tests were performed to Verizon's speed test server located more than 400 miles away in Reston, Va., realized speeds of up to 915 Mbps between the PC and the speed test server.

"XG-PON can provide the capacity needed to support the explosive growth in bandwidth envisioned for new and emerging services such as 3DTV and Ultra HD TV, and the growing demand for streaming video content to the PC and TV, as well as the increased use of concurrent applications," said Vincent O'Byrne, director of technology for Verizon's FTTP architecture and design effort.


Verizon trumpeted the test as proof that its gamble on building out a large fiber-optic network will pay off in the future, as user needs for bandwidth outstrip the capabilities of cable and DSL.

The test appears aimed to reassure investors that Verizon made the right decision to deploy the fiber-to-home network, and to assure observers that Verizon can keep up with any new bandwidth initiatives cable competitors may deploy.

Verizon Pushes 10 Gbps Through Fiber Network | Epicenter�| Wired.com