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If you have lousy cellphone reception in your house, you may have wished you had a cellular tower nearby. Well, now you can buy your own and plant it right inside your home.
Walt Mossberg tries out the AT&T MicroCell, a small gadget that acts as a personal cell phone tower in your home for areas lacking coverage. He says the device has some significant limitations, but more importantly, it raises the question of why you should have to pay to fix a service for which you're already paying.Verizon, Sprint and AT&T all have started selling gadgets that act as mini-cell towers, broadcasting wireless phone service just like a real cell tower does, though over a much smaller area: a single house.
I've been testing one of these devices, AT&T's $150 MicroCell, in two very different homes—my own house in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and my son's basement apartment in New York City. I chose AT&T for my tests because its network typically attracts the loudest complaints about bad coverage and dropped calls.
My verdict is that the AT&T MicroCell can, indeed, dramatically improve cellular reception and reliability, but it's not a silver bullet. I found it works best in truly dire coverage locations, with little or no service, like my son's apartment.
It is less useful in places like my house where the carrier's outside towers provide some reception, even if you find that outside reception unreliable. I also ran into limitations on where you can place the MicroCell and how much of a home it can cover.
An AT&T spokesman insisted that the MicroCell is meant only for "a very small subset of customers with no or very poor coverage," even though its website, at http://bit.ly/njH2s, includes videos touting the product for use in game rooms and home offices in any house. AT&T says it plans to tone down the Web pitch.
These devices, technically called femtocells, work like small versions of a cell tower. You plug them into your home broadband network, through which they acquire a signal from the carrier's network. Then, they wirelessly redistribute that signal inside the home. Your cellphone treats this signal as if it came from a real outside tower, and latches onto it. But the signal supposedly is stronger and better, because it's much closer and more focused.
While some people will welcome these devices as a godsend, others will resent the idea that they have to spend anything extra to get cellphone service they are already paying for.
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Erica Beckman/The Wall Street Journal AT&T's 8.5-inch-tall MicroCell is a cellphone tower for use in the home.Plus, when you make calls while your phone is connected to the MicroCell, you are still using up the minutes in your AT&T plan, just as you would on a regular outside tower, unless you buy an optional extra-cost MicroCell service plan. The company defends this by noting that you are still using its network, even though you are connected to it differently.
However, at least two of the carriers—AT&T and Sprint—are quietly giving away these devices to selected customers with terrible coverage whose patronage they presumably wish to keep. It is unclear to me how to qualify for these free devices, which appear to be handed out on a case-by-case basis.
The MicroCell, built for AT&T by Cisco, is an 8.5-inch tall white, plastic gadget with an upside-down V-shaped base. As noted, it costs a one-time charge of $150, though AT&T will knock off $100 if you buy an optional $20-a-month plan that gives you unlimited voice minutes while using the MicroCell. It is only sold at AT&T stores.
AT&T's device is 3G-capable, meaning it can also be used for data services at decent speeds, though the company recommends you rely on Wi-Fi for data. Verizon's rival device, which isn't 3G-capable, is called the Network Extender and sells for $149 after a $100 rebate, with no monthly fee. Verizon is working on a 3G model. Sprint's version is called Airave. It costs $100, but requires a monthly plan ranging from $5 to $20. It also lacks 3G capability, though Sprint has just announced a 3G model that isn't yet being offered for sale.
In both of my MicroCell test homes, the setup, which takes about an hour, went fine. You have to specify on a Web site which phone numbers can work with the MicroCell. Up to 10 phones can be listed, though the MicroCell can only handle four calls at any one time.
AT&T says the MicroCell has a range of 40 feet in any one direction, and can cover up to a 5,000-square-foot house. At my house, which is considerably smaller than that, it worked fine with both an iPhone and a BlackBerry, as long as I was in the same room as the little transmitter. In those spots, calls were made and received fine, and hardly ever dropped.
But it didn't magically give me great coverage everywhere. First and foremost, because I do have fair AT&T coverage in most of my house, my two phones kept switching between the MicroCell and the outside AT&T tower when I wasn't close to the device. When this happened, once in the midst of a conversation, the call cut off. Also, I could only plug in the MicroCell in the two locations where I had an Ethernet jack, neither of which happens to be in the two places in my house with the worst coverage. So, in those bad spots, the MicroCell signal was weak, and the outside tower kept taking over, even though it barely covers those two places.
AT&T says you can get around this problem by using a powerline adapter to create an Ethernet jack where you'd like one. These adapters route your Internet network through your electrical wires. But, in any case, the MicroCell mustn't be located within a foot of your Wi-Fi base station and AT&T suggests it be within 3 feet of a window—further limitations on location.
At my son's basement dwelling, where he barely got an AT&T signal on two generations of iPhones, things went much better, but only after some fiddling. His only standard Ethernet jack happens to be upstairs (it's a two-level apartment). When the MicroCell was plugged in there, the signal was very weak in his basement abode directly below, constantly battling with the almost useless outside AT&T signal.
The problem was temporarily solved with a long, snaking Ethernet cable running down the stairs, but he viewed that an untenable solution. He finally plugged the Microcell into a basement jack on an Apple Airport Express gadget, which he uses as a Wi-Fi signal booster. While AT&T doesn't officially support this approach, it worked, and the MicroCell has been a dramatic improvement for him.
Overall, I can only firmly recommend the MircoCell for situations where coverage is virtually nil, you are willing to spend an extra $150, and you can locate it in a way that works. If you just want to improve a spotty signal, or a few weak areas in your house, you might be disappointed.
—Find all of Walt Mossberg's columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.For frequent cellphone users, there are a number of products designed to cut exposure to cellphone radiation. Scientists say some gadgets don't work, but others may be a reasonable precaution.
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Tawkon The tawkon appMany scientists think cellphone radiation is safe, but others are concerned it can cause brain tumors or other cancers. "So far studies of cellphones haven't identified major problems, but there are important uncertainties," says Leeka Kheifets, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California in Los Angeles. Longer-term studies are needed since some types of brain tumors can take decades to grow—longer than cellphones have been in widespread use, she says.
A plethora of radiation-cutting options are popping up. One heavily marketed option are radiation shields, or tiny disks that stick on the phone and are supposed to neutralize radiation. The disks make no sense scientifically, says Louis Bloomfield, a professor of physics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. If the disk really does absorb and reflect radio waves, all it would do is ruin your reception "and you risk the cellphone turning up its intensity because it is having trouble communicating," he says.
The Federal Trade Commission, which has taken enforcement action against at least two companies selling such devices, has warned consumers there is "no scientific proof" for the gadgets.
For pregnant women, RadiaShield Technologies Inc., New York, offers a $59 T-shirt made with silver fibers it says lab tests have found blocks nearly all radiation. Scientists say that metal does reflect and absorb radiation, so the approach seems reasonable. The company also offers a blanket women can drape over their bellies when using a cellphone.
There is an app called tawkon, which mines the data inside smartphones to determine how much radiation a person gets, according to Tawkon Ltd., of Herzliya, Israel. Low levels of radiation show up on an icon on the phone's screen as green; intermediate levels as yellow; and higher levels as red. The app is available for some BlackBerry phones and Android models. If you're in the red zone, the app displays a suggestion, such as using a headset, holding the phone fully vertical or moving to a better reception area, where the cellphone will emit fewer radio waves. The catch is that, as Tawkon CEO Gil Friedlander says, there is no scientific basis for where to draw the line between red, yellow and green. Users can change the cutoffs as they choose. "We divided it arbitrarily," he says.
For iPhone and BlackBerry Curve users, there's a $40 case made by Pong Research LLC that contains thin pieces of gold that the Middleburg, Va., company says pulls radiation away from your head and releases it out the back of the phone. In tests by Cetecom Inc., a Milpitas, Calif., unit of Germany's Cetecom GmbH that tests radiation levels in cellphones, the case was found to reduce radiation from U.S. phones to a simulated model of the human head by 60% to 82%, Pong says. Cetecom scientist Heiko Strehlow confirmed its tests found that the Pong directs radiation away from the human head.
According to John Walls, spokesman for CTIA, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit wireless industry group, none of the precautions are necessary. The federal government already sets standards for the maximum amount of radiation a cellphone can emit, says Mr. Walls, and in normal use, cellphones emit far less than that.
The easiest way to cut exposure is to use a hands-free device that keeps the phone further from your head, says Devra Davis, an epidemiologist who is the author of "Disconnect," a book that raises concerns about the radiation.
Write to Laura Johannes at laura.johannes@wsj.com
Tablets are hot commodities right now–from the Apple iPad to the Dell Streak.
There's even a tablet that is a hot seller at Kmart: the low-budget Gentouch78 made by Augen Electronics Corp. has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $199.99 but sells for $169.99 on Kmart.com.
Is a $200 tablet too good to be true? That's what WSJ's Willa Plank was wondering when she tested the Gentouch78 by Augen Electronics, a discount competitor to the iPad.Augen Electronics CEO Gary Gofman said the tablet is selling well at Kmart because it is "well-built for the common folk."
So I decided to give it a try. At first glance, the Gentouch78 looks pretty cool: It's a chunky black slate device that is easy to hold and compact enough to fit in a medium-sized purse. It is thicker and heavier than an iPad but is smaller in width and height. And it comes with a decent-looking faux leather case.
But once I turned it on, the differences were pretty stark. The graphics on the 7-inch, 800 by 480 color touch screen were nothing like the Apple's rich graphics or even the graphics on a mid-range laptop computer, and the live wallpapers included with the device were pixilated.
The processing speed of the device was also a bit slow. I couldn't transfer files like music through USB without getting an 8 gigabyte memory card. The device can take up to 16GB of additional memory through a microSD card.
The device runs on Android 2.1, but does not have access to the Android Market. Instead users have to download apps from a store called AndAppStore by Funky Android Ltd.
This store was not user-friendly and had fewer apps than the Android Market by a large margin. The store doesn't give much description to each app, and only some have a star rating. Most of the apps I downloaded were disappointing. I downloaded an app called GPS status, figuring I would get an app similar to the maps feature on my iPhone. But all I got was a nonfunctional compass.
And although the device was the perfect size for an e-reader, I was disappointed that I couldn't download paid e-books on the device because it lacked an Adobe digital-rights management software-development kit. I visited free e-book sites and downloaded PDF versions of books, but the selection was limited as many of the free books were either classical literature titles or research papers. The company says it hopes to implement the Adobe DRM SDK when it releases the next generation of the product in January.
Other typical functions like Web browsing, music listening, video and photo viewing were fine. Sound was decent, and I honestly don't need the resolution of an iPad. I could download Microsoft Word files and edit them within the Documents to Go program, which was a plus as a journalist on the go.
But using the on-screen touch keyboard was a bit tough. Many times the tablet would register a letter I didn't intend to press. Scrolling was impossible with my finger; I had to use the included stylus. I also found that I needed the stylus to press the "home" and "go back" icons, which were too difficult to press with my finger because they were too small. According the company, a new line of more sophisticated tablets of various sizes, some in similar price to the Gentouch78 and some costing more, called the Espresso line will have multitouch screens like the iPad. The next generation of the Gentouch78 will be known as the Gentouch Latte, but still won't have a multitouch screen.
Navigation buttons were also inconveniently located behind the device, so I couldn't see what I pressing. The microSD card didn't really fit in the slot, until the company told me a trick: Using the larger end of the stylus to press it in. There was also a void between the card slot and the body of the device. I almost dropped the microSD card inside the device. According to the company, that was a misalignment issue that has been fixed.
And the tablet came with a headphone port too small for my headphones. The company said newer shipments should have a 3.5 mm port. Customers with the smaller port can also email the company to get a headphone adapter.
So is the Gentouch78 worth it? I had high hopes that I would find a low-budget iPad. But sadly, the Gentouch is not quite ready for prime time; without a robust e-reader function or access to a wide range of apps, this device is essentially a clunky and slightly crippled Android smartphone. For the price - $169.99 plus a $47.99 8GB microSD at Best Buy, I'd say you might as well get an iPhone 4 instead.
Write to Willa Plank at willa.plank@dowjones.com
With growing interest in three-dimensional movies, videogames and TV, it's no surprise that computer makers now offer 3-D laptops.
I tried the Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV, which went on sale in June for $1,599.99, several hundred dollars more than a similar laptop without 3-D. The 15.6-inch screen laptop offers 4GB of DDR3 memory, 640 GB of storage, Windows 7 Home Premium, a player for 3-D Blu-ray discs and a graphics card from Nvidia.
There are 3-D movies, 3-D TVs, and now, 3-D laptops that are vying for an audience. WSJ's Willa Plank reviews the Toshiba A665-3DV, which offers advanced graphics and immersive 3-D viewing, but comes with a hefty price tag.Photos, videos and games can be viewed in 3-D on the laptop -- but they require special glasses, just like at movie theaters. The Toshiba Satellite comes with a pair of Nvidia active shutter glasses.
How do the glasses work? Each of your eyes views a different perspective, which your brain combines to create depth. Three-D technology tries to simulate this phenomenon when looking at a flat surface, to create an illusion of depth.
The Nvidia glasses achieve this by shuttering the left eye to deliver one frame to the right eye, then shuttering the right eye while opening the left. The glasses synchronize with the refresh cycle of your computer through an infrared emitter. The Toshiba refreshes 120 frames per second, so each side of the glasses shutters 60 times a second.
First, I tried the action-adventure game "Batman: Arkham Asylum" by Eidos Interactive Ltd. Although the colors of the game were dark, the graphics were very vibrant and clear. There was a lot of depth between the characters and the background. I wore headphones, and the glasses focused my vision entirely on the game, making the experience highly immersive. This was especially true for some of the action fight scenes, in which the characters appeared large and close to me.
Next, I played "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game" by Ubisoft, a take on the 3-D movie. The graphics weren't as advanced as "Batman," but the game play was still pretty good in 3-D. There was realistic depth between the main character, other characters and the background.
Both "Batman" and "Avatar" were designed to be viewed in 3-D. But Nvidia representatives say most games released in the past three years will become 3-D when played on the Toshiba laptop and viewed through the Nvidia 3-D video player and glasses because they are "intrinsically 3-D in nature by design."
I watched a clip of the 2010 Masters golf tournament, which was streamed on the Internet in 3-D. The golfers and green looked pretty bright and detailed, but not as crisp and sharp as high-definition TV. The video appeared to slow down and blur during fast action, such as a golf ball in the air. A NASCAR clip that was powered by Nvidia's technology also appeared very pixilated and fuzzy. Crowd shots were very blurry and I couldn't make out anyone.
I also noticed that I occasionally lost the 3-D effect entirely at times, and I could see a flash of light from the corner of my eye. Nvidia said that the glasses may stop working briefly if the battery is weak, or if I turn my back from the infrared emitter that synchronizes the glasses to the laptop. Flashing could be caused by interference from fluorescent lighting.
Additionally, because the glasses are darkened, my eyes strained to see the laptop screen when watching in rooms with low light.
But the biggest drawback for the Toshiba Satellite and Nvidia glasses is the lack of specially made 3-D content. For now, there are only a few 3-D Blu-Ray discs available, and some can only be bought as bundles with 3-D TVs. YouTube and other video sites have some 3-D clips, but they run on Flash, which is not compatible with the Nvidia player, so they don't work on the Satellite A665-3DV.
There is a 3-D photo viewer on the laptop, but it only works with photos taken with a special 3-D camera like the Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1. Overall, watching content not specially made for 3-D, such as the sports clips, was underwhelming.
Is the Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV worth it? I enjoyed playing the specially designed 3-D games, which took the gaming experience to a whole new dimension. But with 3-D entertainment still just catching on at movie theaters and TVs, a 3-D laptop seems a bit premature. Until there is more mainstream content available in 3-D, it's not worth the investment.
Write to Willa plank at willa.plank@dowjones.com
