What did the RCR Wireless News staff spend the week hedgehogging about? The iPhone, MediaFLO TV and TVs in general
Evidently the only thing that can distract intrepid RCR Wireless News journalists from the latest and greatest cellphones are 108-inch LCD TVs. Both Mike Dano and Phil Carson came back from the CES Show in Las Vegas gushing about the mammoth TVs. (Not exactly why they were sent to the show, but hey, they’re honest.)
As a side note to all of the other people in the wireless industry who were distracted by the TVs: The walls in your house will not hold them. Keep that in mind before shelling out big bucks for one.
Verizon Wireless has apparently decided to use CES as its launchpad for spectacular new offerings, and this year the carrier used CES to trumpet its forthcoming MediaFLO mobile TV service.
Mike checked out the LG mobile TV handset for the MediaFLO service, as well as the actual service, and said both were good.
Of course, the key to the service will be pricing. How much are people willing to shell out to watch a limited selection of live television shows on a small screen when there are real-size televisions everywhere.
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We’re all over the place regarding the iPhone? We’re unanimous on a couple of points: It looks great and the finger-as-stylus is cool. On the downside, no HSDPA is a silly mistake that can be corrected before launch in June. It seems likely that the person willing to spend $500 on a new device already has an iPod and a 3G phone and is used to browsing the Web at faster speeds and might not be thrilled about taking that step backwards. The iPhone’s Wi-Fi capabilities are a nice gesture, but people on the go are increasingly relying on high-speed wide area wireless networks.
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Microsoft is moving ahead with its new Vista operating system, which the company has said is the most important product release in its history. Mike recently got the opportunity to play with Vista, and he said . it seems to work exactly like Windows XP. The only difference between the two, as far as he could tell, is that with Vista you can have a video as a desktop background rather than just a still picture. Will the wonders of technology never cease? What an age we live in.
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Quick correction from last week’s hedgehogging. My Circle is Alltel’s cross-network calling plan, while MyFaves is T-Mobile USA’s.
