The musings of an IT Consultant » smartphones

Wireless N Connectivity Issues with New Gadgets

Raj Perumal — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:01:29 +0000

Hi folks, so you get that brand new phone or tablet and are wondering why you aren’t getting N speeds? Well that might be because your manufacturer cheaper out and only put in a wireless card that supports 2.4 GHZ N only.

You see most new devices only support the 2.4 GHZ wireless range and not the 5 GHZ range. Whereas N can actually be made available in both ranges. A lot of wireless installations only support N in the 5 GHZ range which then means that your device ends up connecting at non N speeds if it only supports 2.4 GHZ.

What can you do to fix this? Not much. If it’s your own network, you can make sure your solution support N on both ranges. But if it’s not you out of luck unless you opt to buy a different smart phone or tablet that supports A/B/G/N instead of just B/G/N.

You can read more here.

-RP

Battery life for smartphones

Raj Perumal — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:30:10 +0000

Hi folks! So as you know, I used to be a huge BlackBerry fan and used the devices all of the time. Then I moved over to the iPhone and never looked back. I also have many friends that used Android based smartphones.

The biggest thing I have noticed outside of BlackBerries is the huge issue with battery life. I’m never sure what it is exactly that these other phones do that cause them to drain batteries so much more faster than BlackBerry devices but I have to say it’s annoying. Don’t get me wrong, there are a million and one ways to conserve power, but if you actually want to use all the features on your smartphone, it will die quickly.

I think it’s time for the industry to put some effort into research and development for batteries as opposed to the latest new features. Maybe then we can have an iPhone or an Android smartphone with long term battery life!

-RP

Android is picking up steam!

Raj Perumal — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:39:41 +0000

Hi folks! Welcome to my blog again! I hope spring has been treating everyone well! One of the things I wanted to touch on today is the Android platform!

I have been slowly seeing more and more people use this new platform and they are getting quite excited about it! It looks like we finally have a viable competitor to iPhone! Obviously there are some Exchange syncing issues but apparently those are getting resolved soon!

I guess the big question is, how long will Android take to come up to par with iPhone? I don’t think it’s a matter of if, but a matter of when. It’s interesting to watch the two platforms duke it out, as one is based on a more open platform and one is more of a closed loop. In either case, only consumers can win in the end!

-RP

Will iPhone steal market share from BlackBerry?

Raj Perumal — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:59:58 +0000

Hi folks! As per my previous blog post, iPhone will soon be available at the major carriers across Canada. What does this mean to us?

Well obviously some might think this will foster competition but unfortunately the carriers haven’t been one to really compete with each other. They typically have prices that are in lock step with one another. One would almost think that they get together in the background and have meetings on setting their pricing the same.

No, I think the big thing here isn’t going to be a major shift in pricing, but a major shift in marketshare. What we will see is with the iPhone more readily available it will start to encroach on BlackBerry’s territory. Of Course the BlackBerry is still scene as the corporate smartphone leader but I think with this increased availability it will be hard for corporate types to resist taking a small peak at what else is out there.

-RP