Apple, trying to deflect some of the bad press from their iPhone 4 ‘antennagate’ debacle has posted videos over the past weeks showing how other smartphones also lose cell reception when held in the “death grip.”
The most notable video shows the new Motorola Droid X losing reception within seconds after being gripped tightly.
Beginning tomorrow, Motorola is striking back at the controversial videos, by placing a full page ad in newspapers mocking the iPhone 4’s need for a case to avoid reception issues.
Reads the ad in full: “At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn’t have to dress up their phone for it to work properly. That’s why the DROID X comes with a dual antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket. For us it’s just one of those things that comes as a given when you’ve been making mobile phones for over 30 years.”
Result for: smartphones
According to HP Executive VP Todd Bradley, the company has officially dropped any future plans to create smartphones with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system.
All smartphones will come instead, with WebOS, the mobile operating system acquired by the company when it purchased Palm.
Adds Bradley: “Our intent is to focus those resources and really make webOS the best OS it can be.”
HP is one of Microsoft’s oldest partners, and the company did not want any bad blood, adding it would still “Microsoft’s biggest customer,” just not in the smartphone market.
Since acquiring Palm, HP has dropped plans for a Windows 7 tablet, and now for Windows Phone 7 phones.
Motorola, the other major American player in the smartphone market, has also declined to create Windows Phone 7 devices.
Result for: smartphones
Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), the syndicate of technology, cable and entertainment companies has introduced their long awaited cloud-based digital locker today, dubbing the service Ultraviolet.
Consumers would create an Ultraviolet account which would allow them to purchase movies, TV shows and music and access it from any web-connected device like HDTVs, Blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles.
DECE consists of Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Fox Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, LG Electronics, Lionsgate, Microsoft, Motorola, NBC Universal, Netflix, Nokia, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Toshiba, and Warner Bros.
The group expects to launch the service later this year, and any device manufacturer, entertainment producer or other company “that want to offer the UltraViolet service would have to license its technology specifications from the consortium,” says IW.
Licensing requirements will be “as light as possible,” however.
The two notable names missing from the list are Disney (who is creating a rival system; Keychest) and Apple, which already has iTunes as a “digital locker” for content played back on iPods, iPads, and iPhones.
