CrackBerry mimics Jesus Phone with WebKit browser Research in Motion has uncloaked a WebKit-based browser for the BlackBerry, tapping the same open-source rendering engine that underpins browsers on the Apple iPhone, Google Android mobile operating system, Palm webOS, and the Symbian OS. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis demoed the browser this week at the Mobile World Congress in …
AT&T were rubbing their collective hands together with glee right up until their system couldn't handle it. they were as the saying goes, coining it in.
seriously, no one expected the iPhone to be as big a hit as it was, and you could give AT&T some measure of relief that they were caught short with their pants round their ankles when it turned out otherwise.
Any back to the original article, BB using WebKit (yawn), honestly, how many BB's are going to be able to run it, and you really dont get the best out of WebKit without a larger screen (ie iPhone, Nexus 1, Pre, etc) and I can't see the proverbial road warriors giving up their chicklets for a larger screen
"Tell that to AT&T as they fall over thanks to their lousy infrastructure and chronic underinvestment."
AT&T's problems are entirely their own damned fault.
In fairness, carriers are so obsessed with trying to become the alpha and the omega of all things mobile, they've tended to neglect their infrastructure while trying to build their own music stores, app stores and "communities".
"three BlackBerry browsing sessions for every other smartphone browsing session"
Don't see how you can interpret this as "every other user" or compare it to a Siemens S35.
If he's telling the truth then I'm all for it. Most 'smart'-phones have no understanding of radio resource and tend to grab all of the bandwidth just to send an occasional packet. BB've probably introduced some packet buffering and active transitions to idle/ 0 Mbps RAB so that the radio resources can be released and used by gramps to make a call on his S35. I suspect they've had some severe arm twisting from a major Operator or two, and some advice from the same (like "Stop crashing our London network or else!").
It's not difficult for these guys to design a real smartPHONE, but instead they give us an iPod or email reader with some generic phone bits attached. Might look cool to folks, but it's just bad engineering.
Many, if not most, mobile carriers today are already struggling with providing advertised data plan speeds and bandwidth thanks to the exponential growth of smartphone use worldwide. U.S. based AT&T is a prime example. The Jesus phone initially completely overwhelmed their substandard lame network infrastructure and continues to do so. Hell, their regular cell service and Swiss cheese coverage areas have sucked for years as well. And trust me, as a former AT&T customer, I know the truth. Just think about how much worse it will be in the future with gazillions more smartphones with increased data capabilities. After all 4G speeds are already being implemented. Obviously, the telecoms are going to have to expand their network infrastructures, but as Mike Lazaridis points out, there is only so much capacity in the radio band available.
The bottom line is that if Blackberry is somehow pioneering greater data transmission efficiency, or at least bandwidth utilization, instead of trying to dazzle us with smoke and mirrors, then more power to them. Hopefully, other manufacturers will follow suit. Blackberry has always been about efficiency so I have no reason to doubt them now. Obviously, the telecom carriers want to hawk as much data as they can for the fat revenue stream, but most, unfortunately, just don't have the capability. Any improvement at all will hopefully enhance our mobile based browsing experience. It certainly couldn't hurt.
Given the choice, I chose the Blackberry. Physical keyboard, replaceable battery, Java, SD Card and I'm not hemmed into getting apps from only one store. Got more/cost less, no brainer. New browser? Fine, especially it supports flash. No, it's not the latest BB, but it doesn't have to be. It does what I need, what I want, and cost me less. Enjoy your Jesus Phone. I'm enjoying my BB.
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