wingspan • may 20, 2011
Tech
feature5
Savvy
iPhone now offered through Verizon Wireless tinguish it from its AT&T counterpart. First and perhaps most significantly, it uses the Verizon Wireless network. Feature Writer Verizon’s network is larger and more reliable, which means its users can get service in more areas and experis the warm April sun shined gently down on the ence fewer dropped calls, a common complaint among Appalachian mountains surrounding Etowah, ju- customers of AT&T. The Verizon iPhone can also serve as nior Myles Lance pulled his truck into the vacant a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to five devices at a time, a feature driveway in front of his house and stepped out onto the that the AT&T version lacks. pavement. The Verizon iPhone is not superior to its predecessor Lance, an honor student near the top of his class, in every way, however. For example, because of differencknew the importance of planning ahead, so he decided es in its antenna, the new iPhone’s download speeds are to get a head start on his homework. He reached into his actually slower than than those of the AT&T iPhone. And pocket and brought out his iPhone, a thin, sleek gadget while AT&T’s phone can be used worldwide, its Verizon he had purchased just a few weeks earlier, and swiped counterpart can only receive service in about 40 counhis finger across the screen to unlock the device. Several tries, again because of the antenna. One final important taps and a few swipes later, and he was using the Verizon difference is that the Verizon iPhone does not allow users Wireless 3G network to search for his asto talk on the phone and browse the Web signments on the school’s website. at the same time. “When I first bought my iPhone, I “I knew there were going to be difI made sure to didn’t expect that I’d be able to use it for ferences in the Verizon iPhone, so I made do my research so many things,” Lance said. “I can play sure to do my research before I bought before I bought games, take pictures, call someone or it,” Lance said. “It has its limitations, but even surf the Web all from one spot.” overall, I’ve been pretty satisfied.” the Verizon The iPhone, Apple’s crown jewel of Even though the Verizon iPhone 4 iPhone. It has its the mobile industry, made the switch to was released to great hype and exciteVerizon earlier this year. Since its original ment and has so far received very favorlimitations, but release in June 2007, the iPhone has been able reviews, sales have fallen surprisoverall, I’ve been ingly short of expectations. According to tied exclusively to mobile carrier AT&T. For nearly half a decade, many fans of some sales figures, the new smartphone pretty satisfied. the wildly popular smart phone have rewas barely outpacing the AT&T model sponded with dissatisfaction, exhorting four days after its release. Myles Lance Apple to release a version compatible One possible reason is that many junior users of the AT&T iPhone are still under with Verizon Wireless, AT&T’s biggest rival and operator of the largest telecomcontract and must wait before they can munications network in the world. switch to a Verizon iPhone. There are reThose requests have long been ignored; a controver- ports that Apple plans to release the iPhone 5 later this sial business agreement between AT&T and Apple CEO year, and since the Verizon iPhone 4 adds only a few new Steve Jobs granted AT&T the exclusive right to provide features to the AT&T version, some reviewers recommend service for the device for five years. In January 2011, how- that customers wait until the new device is released. Still ever, Verizon announced that it had reached an agree- another possibility is that the iPhone is not as new and ment with Apple, and on Feb. 10, amid great fanfare, the fresh as it was a few years ago, especially with the rise of iPhone 4 for Verizon was released into stores. competing smartphones like the Droid. “I was excited when I found out that the iPhone was Most critics agree that the Verizon iPhone has so far coming to Verizon,” Lance said. “I’ve been wanting an not quite lived up to the initial excitement of its release. iPhone for a long time, but I couldn’t get one because my Apple Inc., the California-based corporation behind carrier is Verizon. When I heard that a Verizon version was the iPhone, iPad, MacBook and a host of other computer coming out, I decided to buy one for my next upgrade.” products, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in the Like the AT&T version, the Verizon iPhone can func- past several years. From the mp3 player and the personal tion as a portable media player, a Web browser with Wi-Fi computer to the media tablet and the smartphone, Jobs and 3G capability, a camera phone and a digital recorder. and his associates have revolutionized almost every area Verizon’s iPhone also boasts a few features that dis- of consumer electronics.
Tyler Bice
A Macs and PCs compete for consumers
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Katlyn McCarthy Feature Writer
hen high school seniors start looking for the supplies they will need for college next fall, one of the first things on their list will be a new laptop computer. Choosing the right laptop can be challenging, especially when it comes to choosing between a personal computer (PC) and a Macbook. Mac is Apple Computer’s brand while PC refers to Microsoft Windows-based computers. A major difference between Macs and PCs is that PCs run on a Windows-based operating system while Macbooks run on an entirely different operating system known as OS X (10.7 Lion). According to www.apple.com, OS X is built on a UNIX foundation and is designed to be simple and intuitive. According to www.dell.com, the Windows OS 7 helps reduce desktop management costs and enhances data security. “The number one thing is that the Mac is not as receptive to viruses, which slow the computer down. There are more PCs out there, so more people are writing viruses to hit the larger market,” Assistant Principal Kent Parent said. According to www.webopedia.com, viruses affect all computer systems, but because of the wider use of PCs, hackers most often target them. Macs are not targeted as much because there are not as
many Macs currently in use, and Macs are not able to “catch” a virus designed to affect other popular computer brands. College students need a computer that will protect their files. “There just aren’t nearly as many Macs made,” Media Specialist Tom King said. “Just for the large volume of people who own PCs, there is going to be a larger volume of viruses that want to damage the machines. They have made viruses for Macs; they just eradicate quickly and there are just not that many.” PCs give students a variety of options, like Dell, HP, Lenova and Acer. Apple produces not only Macbooks, but also iPods and iPads. Macs already have the antivirus software installed, so consumers do not have to buy it. PCs are typically viewed as better for networking and software development. Macbooks start at $999. A PC can be purchased for as little as $400. “Mac is proprietary, which means that it is product exclusive, and nobody makes Mac but Apple,” King said. “Twenty-five different companies make PCs, so you’re going to have 25 different kinds of looks, different kinds of screens. We buy a Macbook and that’s it; nobody else makes a Macbook. We’re getting the most recent Macbook and that’s it; there are not 57,000 kinds of options for us.”
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Newest phones offer exciting features Bella Bonessi Asst. Feature Editor
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ne summer morning, freshman Mary Katherine Thompson and her family were traveling south to Florida to attend a wedding. Soon her father realized that he had left his GPS — Global Positioning System — at home. Thompson remembered her HTC Incredible cell phone had a GPS built into it. In a successful attempt to “save” the trip, Thompson offered her phone as a guide in Florida. “My phone was never wrong during the trip. We were all loving my phone all week long. We were like ‘Yes, go phone!’” Thompson said. Most people know that BlackBerry was the first popular smartphone to hit the market, but it started back in 1993 when IBM released the very first smartphone called Simon. Besides being a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, fax and games. The Simon was the first phone with a touch screen and had no physical buttons. Smartphones were originally designed for prosumers, “professional customers.” Over time, however, the smartphone became more and more popular. “The ‘Palm’ types were trying to do a whole lot before; they got a little ahead of themselves and the devices were problematic for a lot of users,” said Lydda Noguerol, a service technician for U.S. Cellular. “Then BlackBerry kept it kind of simpler and they were able to take the majority of the market share because their devices actually worked.” After the IBM Simon was put out for the public, many other phone companies were making and improving their own smartphones. Then came the 1998 Nokia 9110 Communicator. This resembled today’s smartphones. It still had a grayscale screen and no real ability to browse the Internet, but it did have a creative flip-out keyboard design. Following the Communicator was the well-known BlackBerry. Starting in 2002, RIM Company (Research In Motion) entered the mobile phone market with this BlackBerry 5810 device, a phone with the ability to get email and surf the Internet.
Then came Apple’s first attempt at cracking the smartphone market. Apple released the iPhone in 2007; it had a touchscreen display with the best web-browsing experience to yet be offered on a mobile device. Three years later, the iPhone is still the device to which all other smartphones are compared. Now, still brand new to the cell phone world, is the Android, an open-source Google phone that is competing well with Apple’s iPhone. “It started off as instead of a phone just from being able to talk and then to text give you the availability of Internet,” Noguerol said. “Email, I think, was the biggest deal that they wanted to have down on a phone. Some companies have tried to combine the PDA with the standard phone, but part of the issue was that you had the Palm types and the Blackberry types.” The technology available and the capabilities smartphones have are simply intriguing. Users can still do everyday things, all on their phone: make phone calls, use calendar/address books, listen to music, give directions, etc. Smartphones now have a wide variety of options to be personalized more easily and creatively. However, there’s more to smartphones than their features. How they make those features possible is the truly intriguing part. The type of technology in smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry is kept exclusively secret — that way the phones will be more secure from viruses, spam and hackers. “It’s mostly proprietary stuff,” Noguerol said. “Android phones and a few other companies went to Google and said, ‘Hey, we want to make a Google phone,’ Google said. ‘You can, but it has to do this. You have to have this specific amount of space and this specific processor to run our stuff correctly.’” Although smartphones are already capable of doing many tasks, smartphone creators are promising faster phones in the near future. “Right now, can you download an entire video to your phone? Yeah,” Noguerol said. “But it will take a while. They want to have that stuff (download speeds) be instantaneous to the phone, and of course the phone itself, you want to have a nice small screen but it’s really detailed and clear.”
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