AT&T did indeed announce today the availability of the latest touch screen version of RIM’s Blackberry, toting the also new OS6. Its appropriately called the TORCH. Here is what it has, and now we’ll see what it can do for RIM:

• World premier BlackBerry in slider form factor with touch screen plus QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad
• BlackBerry 6 OS with all-new browser featuring tabbed browsing for access to multiple web pages at the same time and pinch-to-zoom capability
• First BlackBerry with next-generation messaging including group messaging for up to 10 people and locations
• Social networking feed application for one view of all your favorite sites such as Facebook®, Twitter™ and MySpace®
• Integrated search from home screen
• 5 MP camera with flash, autofocus, and environment settings
• Latest Wi-Fi "N" network support (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n) for home, office, and on the nation’s fastest Wi-Fi network with more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide

For those of you in the know, I’ve been going through some real grief here in Chicago out at my house with T-Mobile and their coverage. Prior to 21-Jun-10, coverage was GREAT! I had 3G/HSPA+ out at the house and I was fat, dumb and happy as far as signal was concerned.

Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for much better coverage.  Signal strength was consistent, strong (3-4 bars 3g/HSPA/HSPA+, 4-5 bars EDGE), and I rarely dropped a call. Loved it.

Notice the past tense.  LovED. 

In late June, a number of severe storms ran through suburban Chicago.  Since then, T-Mobile coverage at my house has SOOPAHH-sucked. I bounced between couldn’t get a signal AT ALL to every thing in between 3-4 bars of 3G signal. However, no matter what the phone read, placing or receiving a call, surfing the net or sending a text message was hit or miss at BEST.  Honestly, I haven’t really had service at the house at all since 21-Jun-10.

Early this morning, after arriving downtown, I flashed the new Nexus One Korean Radio Image, and O.M.G! Check this out:

2.17Mbps down, 320Kbps up..!

I am in the BCBS-IL building on the lake front, on the 16th floor.  Buildings like this are typically a dead zone for any cell phone, but I was still able to pull in over 2Mbps down.  I think that’s AMAZING, especially since I’ve never been able to have download speeds above 50k/sec here, at my desk, on the 16th floor.  In actual use, I was able to download a 150MB file in under 5 minutes with this radio.

Totally awesome; and totally amazing.  If you have a Nexus One and haven’t downloaded this radio image, you really need to give it a shot. Its universal, and should be able to work on either flavor N1 (T-Mobile or AT&T) here in the States.

John Paczkowski over at ALL THINGS DIGITAL filed this report today on the iPhone4 upload issue and AT&T’s part in it. Check out his explanation and let JAMM know your experience.

Is AT&T (T) capping data uploads on Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 4? Not on purpose. Turns out a software issue is responsible for reports of dramatic drops in data upload speeds in some regions of the country, including New York and Philadelphia. AT&T tells me that a software defect in some of Alcatel-Lucent’s equipment has been crippling 3G HSUPA performance in the markets in which it’s been deployed. The good news is Alcatel-Lucent is working on a fix. The bad news is AT&T doesn’t yet have an ETA for its delivery.

Here’s the company’s statement on the issue:

AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect — triggered under certain conditions – that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable
wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices.

From a former, and disgruntled AT&T user, I can wonder about Apple’s mistake in the algorithm that has led to misrepresenting the signal strength that an iPhone is experiencing.

Since many cell phone users equate happiness in a provider with the number of signal strength bars received in various locations, displaying more bars than what a phone should have in a specific location looks to me like it could only serve to benefit the cell phone provider.  A false reading displaying untrue signal strength feedback could foster confidence in a network that isn’t deserved.

This could be beneficial to the phone manufacturer as well.  Especially when a poor performer of a network is the sole provider for a phone.  If a user was continually dissatisfied with a phone network, it might be enough to drive that individual away, thereby no longer being a user of the exclusive phone.

[via ZDNet]

The punch line to the very old joke is, "well then don’t do that…" However, it seems neither Apple nor AT&T are learning from past mistakes.

I saw an interesting article on ZDNet earlier regarding the fiasco and cluster-bump that seems to be iPhone 4 pre-orders and upgrades at AT&T.  It seems that the carrier’s infrastructure AGAIN can’t seem to handle the demand for the flagship Apple device. I can do nothing more than shake my head and chuckle.

Yep, that’s right, kids… I am so NOT surprised.

This has happened with (nearly..?) EVERY iPhone release.  AT&T’s infrastructure simply buckles under the weight of Apple’s customer’s demands, making not only themselves, but Apple look like an idiot…AGAIN… in the process.  Will neither company learn from past mistakes?

Whether the iTunes activation system, AT&T’s internal mainframe or other customer facing system, every time Apple provides their Smartphone partner in the US with a product to sell, AT&T seems hell bent on screwing the experience up. At this point, most everyone (Jason O’Grady as well as myself…and other’s I’m certain) is wondering why Stevie J. sticks with the "Evil Empire." The answer isn’t as complicated as you might think, nor is it as easy as some are making it out to be.

Yes, the answer is the dollar, but is also a technical one, too.

In the US, AT&T is a larger carrier than the other national GSM provider, T-Mobile.  AT&T’s network, though seemingly fragile beyond all comprehension, is larger than T-Mo’s.  Their 3G coverage, though still weak compared to Verizon’s, is larger than T-Mo’s (though comparatively, in Chicago at least, T-Mo’s 3G network is FAR superior and much more stable).

To put it plainly, Apple puts up with AT&T’s crap in the States, because they are really the only choice they have.  Apple is NOT going to make a separate iPhone model capable of running on Verizon’s or Sprint’s CDMA network, just for the States. While T-Mobile can run the iPhone on its network (as many jail breakers can attest to…), and is the heir apparent as some pundits think; they have a smaller network, and I’m not 100% certain (though I have a good idea) how their network would handle an official iPhone rollout.

So… Apple sticks with AT&T and puts up with the mess than they have made of every connected device rollout that Apple has provided, because they kinda have to. Any other cellular alternative in the States would prove (I think) either incompatible or inadequate

I mean, that is, unless Deuche Telkomme and/or Apple want to spend some serious green to build out T-Mobile USA’s network. DT definitely has the capital to do that. However, I don’t know what their long term strategy for T-Mobile USA is.  Getting Apple to let a hand (or a buck or two) may or may not be in their long term interests; but boy… wouldn’t that just turn the cellular world on its ear??

If I were Steve Jobs, I’d think at least twice about that before I dismissed the idea…It could put a serious crimp in Google’s style, give MS some serious WP7S implementation problems, and all but insure that they cemented their place in the Smartphone market (as well as kicking AT&T in the tush to get their network issues worked out…)

What do you think?  Does Apple have an AT&T alternative?  Should they help create one?  Should they partner with Deuche Telekomme to improve the T-Mobile network here in the States (or in any other country for that matter)?  I’d love to hear what everyone else has to say in the comments below.