Pazdziernik II

iPhone4 and Wireless Network Differences Explained

David Pogue, a tech writer for the N.Y. Times recently wrote about the new iPhone 4: For iPhone, Almost Heaven, (February 2, 2011, N.Y. Times) This is Apple's iPhone using Verizon rather than AT&T. With a different wireless carrier comes a different technology. Mr. Pogue's article is a nice succinct description of the differences between the two wireless networks in the USA and elsewhere.

[T]here are two kinds of cellphone networks in this country. They’re known as C.D.M.A. (Verizon and Sprint use this technology) and G.S.M. (the system for AT&T and T-Mobile). Making an iPhone that works on a C.D.M.A. network entailed four adjustments, some of which you won’t like.

First, Apple moved the volume and Ringer Off switches a fraction of an inch to accommodate the C.D.M.A. antenna inside. It’s not a big deal, but those buttons no longer fit existing AT&T iPhone cases. (Contrary to blogger belief, the redesign doesn’t help with the famous Death Grip issue, in which holding the phone in a certain way makes your signal bars drop. Then again, the problem emerges only when you’re in a very weak signal area, so you’ll see it less often on Verizon. I couldn’t reproduce it at all.)

A second C.D.M.A. difference: When you exchange long text messages with non-Verizon phones, they get split up into 160-character chunks. G.S.M. phones are smart enough to reconstitute those chunks into one more readable, consolidated message.

Third: You can’t talk on an C.D.M.A. phone while you’re online. That is, if you’re on a call, you can’t simultaneously check a Web site or send e-mail over the cellular network — and, annoyingly, the Personal Hotspot feature cuts off. (It reconnects when you hang up.)

...

For business travelers, the fourth C.D.M.A. difference is the most disappointing: not many other countries use C.D.M.A. The Verizon iPhone works in about 40 countries, including Mexico, Canada and China; AT&T phones, on the other hand, work in 220 countries. (In both cases, you pay through the nose if you use them overseas.)

So now I will be able to understand the wireless telephone commercials on T.V. and elsewhere a bit better.

Facebook with HTTPS

I recently learned that Facebook added the option of using HTTPS. HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP, the dominant and near-universal protocol for internet data transfer. Basically by using HTTPS, all messages will be encrypted when enabled.

To help make Facebook more secure, the site is introducing a new encryption option that uses the same security technology that shopping sites employ to keep hackers from seeing credit card numbers.

To turn on secure Facebook browsing, log in to Facebook and click on Account in the upper right corner. Select Account Settings. On that page near the bottom, click on Account Security. If the new option has been made available to your account, the first option at the top will be Secure Browsing (https). Click that, then hit the blue Save button just below it. You’re done.

HTTPS is not unbreakable, but cracking it is far more work than anyone is likely to do.

Source: N.Y. Times Blog