Differences between the chief executives of AT&T Mobility and Sprint became clear with remarks they made at the CTIA Wireless conference in New Orleans this week. One seemed to be a techno-Pollyanna, while the other was a downer in comparison.

Ralph de la Vega, who leads AT&T’s mobility division, expressed his enthusiasm for things to come. He said that the mobile Internet had reached a “tipping point,” and that he was excited about Digital Life, a new Internet-based home security system that AT&T is developing. He also shared a rather optimistic prediction that mobile payments would replace the wallet by next year.

“I think it’s time for the smartphone to replace the wallet,” he said during a roundtable discussion of telecom executives.

Mobile payments have yet to catch on in the United States. Companies have had difficulty proving to consumers that mobile payments are safer and more convenient than paying with cash or a credit card. and in order for mobile payments to become commonplace, there has to be some cooperation among the phone manufacturers, carriers, mobile payments providers and store merchants. Mr. de la Vega seemed to believe the stars were already aligning.

“The reputation of our industry has dropped to the lowest of any major industry,” he said. “Even the cable and oil industries rate higher with consumers than we do. That’s a bummer.” He said that gaining trust from customers is crucial for carriers now, because smartphones are becoming a critical tool that people use for payments, to monitor their health and handle bank transactions.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit group that focuses on technology laws, would agree with Mr. Hesse about the issue of trust. It said privacy is the major tradeoff with mobile payments, because they can expose data to more parties than traditional credit cards do, and because they could lead to more telemarketing and spam. Technology companies offering mobile payments will need to gain consumer trust by baking strong privacy controls into their services, the group says.

But perhaps it’s not surprising to see such contrasting outlooks between these carriers. Mr. de la Vega’s AT&T usually reports healthy profits, while Mr. Hesse’s Sprint is digging itself out of a hole.

AT&T and Sprint Chiefs Display a Difference in Moods

apart from the released HTC one X , the smart phones world are filled with the speculation of Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple’s next generation iPhone (may be iPhone 5). according to the reports at the time being, both the two devices are highly feature-rich, may be just as people expected, they are , therefore, considered as the best weapons of the two manufacturers in the smartphone battlefield.

the release of HTC one X leave little room for Apple’ s iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III, it is said to be the biggest rival of the latter two forthcoming super smart phone. AS for HTC one X is talked about before, here I will not talk much about it any more.   Fans of both iPhone 4S and Galaxy S2 are pay close attention to the improvements in the next generation phones —-iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III, and the two manufacturers are too trying their best to add awesome features to their upcoming handsets to keep the interest of consumers high. HTC one X, he first quad-core phone with Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor running at 1.5GHz, seems to make the job much tougher. for more information about HTC one X, you can turn to the blog

Samsung Galaxy S III vs. Apple iPhone 5 Processor:if the expectation become true, Galaxy S3 will be the real King of the smart phone. It  is expected to pack a quad-core, Exynos 4212/ Exyos 5250, 2 GHz/ 1.8 GHz processor with 2GB RAM, the processor, the RAM are the best the history ever witness then. On the other hand, Apple iPhone 5 is reported to ship with a faster 1.2-to-1.5 GHz quad-core A6 chip with probably 1GB or more of RAM.

Operating System: according to the reports and rumors now, Galaxy S III is probably to apply Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google’s latest mobile operating system. On the other hand, iPhone 5 may come with Apple’s upgraded operation system——iOS 6.0. the performance of the two is unknown now, so, we have to wait and see which is better.

display : Galaxy S3 is rumored to come with  a 4.8 inch, full HD 1080P resolution display with 16:9 aspect ratio. as for iPhone 5, according to the recent reports, Apple is planning apply the current 3.5-inch screen to the next iPhone. the device is expected to sport Quantum Dot LED curved glass edge-to-edge display with 1280 x 720 resolutions (367ppi).

Camera: Samsung Galaxy S3 is rumored to pack a 12 megapixel 4000×3000 pixels camera along with features like autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization features. A 2 megapixel secondary camera is also likely on cards.

iPhone 5 is highly rumored to feature an 8 megapixel or even 10 megapixel camera and the possibility of taking pictures in the panorama mode. Rumors also suggest that the iPhone 5 will have a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting.

Network and Connectivity: Expectation of the two features in the two devices are the same. they are expect to 4G LTE, come with the near Field Communication (NFC), even Bluetooth 4.0.

Video: Both are expected to support 1080P videos, but the formats may limited to several common formats such as h.264. Mp4 and the like, so, if you love watching videos on phones, you’d better get an   Movie Converter for Mac or  AVCHD Video Converter to convert videos to MP4 for playback on the phones.

Samsung Galaxy S III vs. Apple iPhone 5 – Best Multimedia Solution

By STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN szimmermann@suntimes.com April 19, 2012 5:16PM

THE FIXER HAS SAVED YOU

Updated: April 20, 2012 2:31AM

dear Fixer: Sprint heavily marketed a program for unlimited 4G Internet service for $59.99 per month if you signed a two-year contract. it was by far the best deal at the time, so I signed up.

That was in December 2010. Things went well until this past December, when I got a bill for more than $400.

I called Sprint, and they claimed that they had changed the terms of the contract. they also claimed that by putting a notice in the October billing statement, they had fulfilled their legal obligation to notify consumers.

I have filed complaints with Illinois Attorney General, the Federal Communications Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to no avail. I believe Sprint’s actions amount to bait and switch. they are abusing consumers and not providing what they marketed.

Sprint should be held to its promise of unlimited 4G service until my two-year contract expires, just as I have agreed to make payments for the two years.

Can you please help me to get Sprint to honor a legal contract and to own up to their side of the contract — and can you please assist in getting consumers to understand that it is NOT fair for a company to change the terms of a contract halfway into it, when they have locked you into a two-year agreement.

Ken Loebel, Geneva

dear Ken: you told the Fixer you were blown away by the increase in your monthly Sprint bills. you never saw it coming because you pay your bills over the phone through Sprint’s payment service and never saw the notice tucked into your October statement.

you felt that Sprint’s efforts to publicize this huge change in their terms paled in comparison to their marketing of that fabulous $59.99 price.

Before you came to the Fixer, you had complained to Sprint on more than one occasion and they responded by issuing you a couple of credits totaling $622.93. they also offered to let you out of the remaining year of your contract without having to pay the $200 early termination fee.

But you felt they should stick with the $59.99 price they had promised you. you told us you feel it’s dishonest for a company to entice a customer with one price and then offer to dump him after they find someone else who will pay a higher amount. you are not the only consumer who feels this way, judging by the pile of online gripes about this change in Sprint’s billing structure.

We tried to get Sprint to hold up their end of the bargain, with no luck. Sprint won’t go back to the $59.99 unlimited data price for you.

Spokeswoman Candace Johnson added: “Sprint makes every effort to ensure the satisfaction of our customers. in October, we changed our unlimited 4G mobile broadband plan to a capped plan. Customers were sent notices with their bills of the coming change to their plans. Customer satisfaction is a top priority at Sprint and we will continue to make every effort to listen to their concerns and take appropriate action.”

Johnson did say their offer still stands to let you out of the contract without paying an early termination fee, should you decide to drop them and find another carrier — but you still think this is morally wrong.

The Fixer had to squint to read the fine print in your original contract, which says “we may make changes to the terms of conditions … from time to time and will provide you notice.” This reminds the Fixer of those credit card contracts which, also in the finest of fine print, would say something to the effect of: “We reserve the right to change your interest rate at any time, for any reason.”

It’s too bad the consumer never gets a loophole that big. Readers, what do you think Ken should do? should he accept the offer to get out of his contract, or try to fight on? We’d love to hear your opinions; please email the Fixer at szimmermann@suntimes.com.

see the Fixer speak in Schaumburg

the Fixer will talk about how to avoid common rip-offs and save money from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Schaumburg Township District Library’s central location, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. the program, funded through a financial education grant, is part of the library’s celebration of Money Smart Week. To register, go to stdl.org and click on “events” or call the library at (847) 985-4000 for more information.

Sprint changes terms, prices — in the middle of the contract

Apple iPhone 5: 10 Most Prevalent Rumors about new Features (Page 1 of 2 )

Apple hasn

Fox urine is a chemical that simulates the urine of a fox that is used as pest deterrent by farmers, gardeners, homeowners and others that will benefit from this useful agent. Fox urine repellent is not a pesticide nor a poison but only a deterrent. The concept of this pest deterring agent is to simulate the odor of the fox urine so that rodents and other animals that are natural preys of the fox will be able to smell it and avoid the area wherein it is applied.

It is an odorless and non-poisonous chemical, either in powder or liquid form, applied in areas where these pests are known to habitually infest – farms, gardens, poultry, warehouses, and even your homes.

Fox urine application is truly beneficial to those who use it. To list a few:

1. Higher farm yield – be it vegetables, fruits or grains, farmers who applied it in their farms experience abundant harvests. this is an expected outcome with the absence of natural consumers like rodents and rabbits.
2. Healthier and greener lawn – With the absence of moles and other burrowing rodents, your lawn will be healthier and subsequently, greener. Burrowing rodents, which are not a direct threat to the grass themselves, in search of worms and insects will burrow under your lawn and in the process destroying and disturbing the root system of the lawn. using and applying urine in their holes and around your lawn will greatly help.
3. Nut-free roof gutters – Chipmunks may be cute and generally harmless, but sometimes destructive to properties. They often stash nuts and acorns in any crevices they can use and that include roof gutters. these can clog up gutters and when rainy season comes, rain water will overflow and may find its way into attic or other parts of your roof and could rot your roof and ceiling and other wooden parts of your house. Urine can be of much help in this situation.
4. Environment-friendly – Fox urine is neither a poison nor a pesticide, therefore, you will not be killing these rodents and other animals but only drive them away from your farms, gardens and homes. It is only a deterrent and is biodegradable. It is not hassle-free but also guilt-free, knowing that you do not kill just for profit and comfort. In addition fox repellent is 100% natural and biodegradable. It won’t harm animals and yet it will still protect your home, lawn and garden.

A Few Benefits of Fox Urine

Apple Iphone 4 is now the most preferred digital camera on Flickr.com.The statistics show that the Iphone 4 have over 4600 daily users and on second place comes Canon Eos 5D Mark ll.You can read more in the article we have added from appleinsider.com below

ITProPortal. Apple’s iPhone now the digital camera of choice among consumers. Apple Insider. That beat the second-place Canon EOS 5D Mark II as well as the Nikon D90 Canon EOS REBEL T2i and Canon EOS 7D. when tracking solely smartphone use on Flickr the statistics show complete domination by Apple. The top four smartphones for picture Flickr’s Digital Camera of Choice iPhone. All things Digital. You say camera I say iPhoneTECH.BLORGE.com. iPhone Leads Consumer Preference Among Leading Digital CamerasMobile Marketing Watch. all 10 news articles.…Source

Read more about the Apple Iphone camera here

Apple Iphone 4 – The Most Preferred Digital Camera On Flickr

Nobody hit Friday night’s multi-state Mega Millions jackpot, making tomorrow night’s drawing worth a mega $363 million! The winning ticket will be worth an estimated $259.8 million in cash. Purchase your tickets by 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night for your chance to win big!

This is the third-largest Mega Millions jackpot in history and the largest since January 4, 2011, when the jackpot was $380 million. The largest jackpot in Mega Millions history was a $390 million prize, won in March 2007 by two players in new Jersey and Georgia. The Colorado Lottery began selling Mega Millions tickets in May 2010, giving Colorado residents the chance to score big jackpots four nights a week. The Jackpot game is sold in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9 p.m. MDT. Mega Millions has a starting jackpot of $12 million and other prizes ranging from $2 to $250,000. To play, consumers choose five numbers from 1 to 56 and one Mega Ball number from 1 to 46. Players that match the five numbers and the Mega Ball win the jackpot. Players can also opt to spend an extra $1 for a “Megaplier” option that will multiply their non-jackpot prizes by 2, 3 or 4 times, which would make a $250,000 prize an even $1 million.

Proceeds from the Colorado Lottery’s games – MatchPlay, Mega Millions, Cash 5, Scratch, Lotto and Powerball – stay in Colorado to improve the quality of life in the state. The Lottery has returned more than $2.3 billion to the state of Colorado since it was established. Through great Outdoors Colorado, the Conservation Trust Fund and Colorado State Parks, the Lottery has provided funding for new trails, precious open space and wildlife protection. For more information, visit www.coloradolottery.com.

Mega Millions jackpot climbs to $363 million

In a complaint filed on March 6 (available on Scribd via the WSJ’s Law Blog), a new York man alleges that the assistant Apple squeezed into his iPhone 4S does not work as advertised. Frank Fazio is suing Apple in a California federal court seeking restitution and damages, and not at all surprisingly is hoping to represent a class of consumers who are, or who he imagines might be, unhappy with Siri too.

Fazio alleges that he bought an iPhone 4S in Brooklyn for $299, and that he did so after having been “exposed to Apple’s representations regarding the Siri feature. Plaintiff would not have paid the price he paid for the iPhone 4S, if he had not seen these representations.”

If it sounds a bit odd that Fazio is claiming to have been “exposed” to misrepresentations, rather than clearly saying he “relied” on them, then you may not be familiar with how California’s Unfair Competition Law works. (Disclosure: I represent clients who have been sued under the UCL, although sadly for me and my firm, we do not represent Apple.) Prior to 2004, there was no requirement that there be any connection at all between the plaintiff and whatever evil he or she was claiming to attack. after some highly publicized bogus lawsuits, the law was amended that year to require a plaintiff to prove such a connection (i.e. actual reliance on a misrepresentation). but let’s just say that some California judges seem not to have noticed that amendment, or at least they require so little of a plaintiff that it might as well never have happened. Not all by any means, but some. And so you still get complaints like this, which allege almost no facts about the plaintiff.

Why did mr. Fazio buy the 4S, exactly? did he want to “make appointments,” “find restaurants,” or “learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs,” as he says the commercials promise will be possible? did he need Siri to show him “how to tie a tie”? which of these were important to him personally, if any? He doesn’t say. nor, unsurprisingly, does he say exactly how Siri failed him:

Promptly after the purchase of his iPhone 4S, Plaintiff realized that Siri was not performing as advertised. For instance, when Plaintiff asked Siri for directions to a certain place, or to locate a store, Siri either did not understand what Plaintiff was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer. … Upon information and belief, Plaintiff’s problems with Siri are not unique ….

That’s it? Pretty generic. What about the classic rock songs?

Evidently Fazio claims he was lulled by the commercials into thinking that Siri would be able to do anything he asked her to, without fail, which of course is nonsense. Siri has worked amazingly well for me, and that’s based on actual experience, not “information and belief.” (That’s legalese for “I’m alleging this but am also letting you know I haven’t actually looked into it yet.”) How many chances did Siri get before he “promptly” gave up on her?  Just those two?

On information and belief, he detected the alleged problem “promptly after the purchase” because his lawyer had told him to expect it.

You have to wonder if Siri will suddenly become especially good at finding things in the Northern District of California (San Jose Division), especially things that federal judges might need. but don’t do it, Siri. It’ll just look bad.

Lawsuit Claims Siri Doesn’t Know What She’s Talking About

by Bill Palmer

Apple’s new iPhone 5 will mark the company’s entrance into 4G LTE networking when it reaches its release date this summer, and it’ll serve as a report card for not only the tower-building efforts of Verizon and AT&T but also the future of Sprint in general. Sprint essentially bet the company late last year on a deal with Apple which allowed it to get in on the iPhone juggernaut but placed the carrier in the position of having to eat a massive dollar amount in upgrade subsidies up front in the hope that it would be able to lure enough new customers away from AT&T and Verizon that it can make up the revenue in monthly increments going forward. And with Sprint currently dead last in the LTE wars among the three remaining carriers (T-Mobile’s adrift status leaves it unclassifiable for now), the carrier faces a turning point when Apple releases the iPhone 5 this year and officially kicks off the 4G LTE era…

The only clear winner thus far in the iPhone 4S era is Apple itself. by launching a new iPhone on all three major carriers for the first time, Apple finally gave consumers what they’d been asking for – iPhone carrier choice – and has benefited greatly from it. The iPhone gained nearly twenty marketshare points in the fourth quarter of last year, taking customers away from the rival Android and BlackBerry platforms which both lost significant marketshare in that same timeframe. but which of the three U.S. iPhone carriers is “winning” is another matter. The iPhone 4S is the most popular smartphone on each of the three carriers, but the battle between those carriers may not be decided until the iPhone 5 era. The twelve to twenty month upgrade eligibility cycle means that most Verizon and especially Sprint customers haven’t yet even been eligible to buy an iPhone at standard pricing; the real payoff for Apple’s carrier expansion will come as of the iPhone 5 release date, when those who’ve been forced to wait to buy their first iPhone will finally make their move. And with 4G LTE shaping up to be the defining feature of the iPhone 5 (along with its increased screen size), the three carriers are in a race to meet Apple at the starting block…

Despite heavy promotion from Verizon and AT&T, the 4G LTE era has thus far been a failure. Verizon’s LTE towers only cover a fraction of its users, AT&T’s towers cover a much smaller fraction of its users, and buyers of 4G LTE phones have found that their battery life is stunningly short thanks to the oversized, power hungry first generation LTE antennas built in. Moreover consumers have favored the iPhone 4S, which shuns 4G LTE altogether, even as marketshare of the LTE-heavy Android platform drops severely. in other words, the 4G LTE era won’t begin until Apple says so, and that’ll be with the launch of the iPhone 5 with its presumed second-generation low power LTE antenna. by that time Verizon may or may not have finished its LTE nationwide network, while AT&T almost certainly won’t. Sprint is caught in the tricky position of having built a 4G nationwide network based on a slower protocol that’s about one-fifth as fast as that of 4G LTE (Sprint’s 4G is often derided as “fake 4G” or “pseudo 4G”) and must now replace the entire network with 4G LTE if it wants to be on board with the iPhone 5 – unless it can convince Apple to build a separate Sprint iPhone 5 which uses Sprint’s slower alternate 4G network, which is possible but unlikely. Here’s more on the iPhone 5.

Sprint iPhone 5 release date marks LTE turning point vs Verizon, AT&T

If your interest in Apple dates back at least a decade, you may remember the concept of the iPod Halo Effect. that was the term used to describe the phenomenon where iPod consumers—many of whom were buying their very first Apple-built product—became so taken with the music player that they started spending their hard-earned cash on other Apple offerings.

Consider for a moment a stat Apple trots out each quarter when it announces its financial performance—that around half of the Macs it sells through its retail stores are to customers new to the Mac. Apple first began to highlight that trend around the same time iPod sales began their stratospheric climb. another noteworthy stat: Apple shipped 746,000 Macs and turned a profit of $38 million for the fiscal first quarter of 2002—the first quarter in which the iPod began shipping. by the fiscal first quarter of 2009, when quarterly iPod sales reached their peak, Apple was selling 2.5 million Macs and reporting a $1.61 billion profit.

iPod sales have since tailed off, but the halo effect hasn’t gone away. Instead, it’s simply shifted over to Apple’s iOS product line, which is generating stellar sales of its own while introducing new customers to the rest of the company’s product portfolio.

“What is clearly happening now is that the iPhone is creating a halo for the Macintosh,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier this week during an hour-long session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. “The iPhone has also created a halo for iPad.”

Again, the numbers bear out this claim. In its just-completed fiscal first quarter, Apple sold more than 37 million iPhones, a quarterly record for the company; it also tallied record Mac and iPad sales during the quarter. for 23 consecutive quarters, Mac sales have outpaced the growth of the overall PC market. While that stretch predates the 2007 debut of the iPhone, Apple seems to credit its smartphone’s popularity for helping to keep that streak alive.

The iPhone’s success is trickling over to other product lines, according to Apple.

There’s a key difference between the boost the iPhone is currently giving Apple’s business and the one it got from the iPod in the Aughts, however. As Cook pointed out during the Goldman Sachs event, the iPod had its greatest impact on Apple’s fortunes in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia—in other words, developed markets where the company was already established. “It didn’t work nearly to the same level in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, China, other parts of Asia, Latin America,” Cook said. “Because people were already getting music from their phones.”

The iPhone, however, has been able to extend Apple’s reach into markets in ways that the iPod never could. Part of that falls to the aggressive way the company has expanded its smartphone business around the globe. for example, just three months after its debut, the iPhone 4S is already available in 90 countries—the fastest smartphone rollout in Apple’s history. Also helping Apple’s efforts in these newer markets is the critical place that mobile phones have in people’s lives.

Cook cited an eye-popping figure at the Goldman Sachs conference. for 2007—the year before the iPhone became widely available outside the U.S.—combined revenue from China, parts of Asia, India, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa was $1.4 billion. Last year, those same regions accounted for $22 billion in sales.

“The iPhone began to introduce Apple to literally hundreds of millions of people,” Cook said. “Some that bought it, some that didn’t, others that desired it. but it introduced our brand to people who had never met Apple before.”

Apple has opened six retail stores in China, including this one in Shanghai.

That’s paying dividends in China, in particular. Cook told attendees at the Goldman Sachs conference that Apple’s revenue from that country has grown from a “few hundred million dollars” to $13 billion last year. While the iPhone can claim much of the credit for that—“We really have been focused on trying to understand the market there and then taking those learnings to other markets,” Cook said—Apple’s other business are reaping the rewards as well. the company’s Mac business in China grew more than 100 percent in 2011, roughly 10 times the growth rate of the rest of the PC market in that country.

More important, Apple thinks there’s still plenty of room for growth in China, which became the company’s second-largest market behind the U.S. last year. Retail store openings in Hong Kong and Shanghai last fall brought the number of Apple Stores in China to six; Apple has said those stores are among its highest trafficked. Last October, Cook called China “a giant market for Apple, and one that’s ripe for sales to consumers.” It’s no coincidence that the next version of Mac OS X—Mountain Lion, which Apple announced on Thursday—includes a number of China-specific features such as improved text input capabilities and support for Internet services that are popular in China.

And it’s not the only market for the company. Speaking to investors Tuesday, Cook noted that Apple is increasing its focus in Brazil and starting to do the same in Russia—two other countries where iOS device are helping the company get its foot in the door. Brazil, for example, became the first country outside of the U.S. to gain access to the company’s iTunes Match service late last year. It’s those kinds of growth opportunities that has Apple bullish about the long-term possibilities for its iPhone halo effect.

“There’s lots more opportunity out there, and so I think this is very, very profound and very big for us,” Cook said.

Analysis: Halo effect moves from iPod to iPhone