Gadgets

iPhone owners responding to a research firm’s survey reported a significantly higher percentage of overall dropped calls on the AT&T network than on Verizon.

ChangeWave polled roughly 1,300 iPhone customers on each of the networks, on how frequently they experienced a dropped call in the past 90 days.

AT&T iPhone customers reported an average of 4.8 percent of calls dropped, and Verizon iPhone customers reported a 1.8 percent average dropped-call rate.

Despite the differences in dropped-call rates, iPhone customers on both networks reported nearly equal satisfaction ratings: 82 percent of Verizon iPhone customers say they’re “Very satisfied,” versus 80 percent of AT&T customers reporting the same.

Audi is getting in on the bicycle game with a range of three “Duo” bikes, made for the car company by Portland bike builder Renovo. Unlike the high-tech efforts from fellow carmakers McLaren and BMW, Audi’s bikes take a rather more hippy approach.

The frames for the Duo City, Duo Sport, and Duo Road are made from hollow wood, the trademark feature of Renovo’s bike (which also come in bamboo).

Bach Nguyen’s Handlebars concept is a lock built in to the handlebars of a bike. To use it, you press a couple buttons up on top of the bars, pull the two newly-released bars around the immovable object of your choice and push them back together, whereupon they lock into place. If you have ever collapsed and re-attached the handlebars on one of those aluminum micro-scooters, you have the general idea.

Apple has traditionally debuted new iPhones at its annual software developers conference, but this year’s event in June will be 100 percent software news, according to a report.

Citing anonymous tipsters, well-sourced Apple blogger Jim Dalrymple claims there will be no iPad, iPhone or Mac hardware introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off June 6 in San Francisco.

Apple’s press release announcing the event doesn’t give much hope for any hardware announcements.

Apple announced Wednesday that Bertrand Serlet, lead developer of Mac OS X, is leaving the company, just a day before the operating system turns 10 years old.

Though less publicized than Apple executives Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Serlet is a legend at the company. He was basically the Jony Ive of Apple’s software design. Mac OS X, which originally released March 24, 2001, has played a crucial role in driving the success of Apple’s Macs and mobile products.

“I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,” said Serlet, Apple’s senior VP of software engineering, in a press statement. “Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release, and the transition should be seamless.”

Serlet has a lot to brag about.

With some unauthorized hacks, you can share your smartphone’s internet connection with other devices, free of charge — and AT&T has had enough of that.

On the iPhone, for example, the hack MyWi has been a popular tool for “tethering” the handset’s internet connection for free, and just recently users of MyWi reported receiving text messages and e-mails from AT&T requiring them to “update” their plans.

One Wired reader got an unpleasant surprise upon testing his new AT&T GoPhone last week: Even if a call hasn’t been connected, you are charged for the call after 30 seconds.

Lon McQuillin, a San Mateo, California, writer, decided to test his new pre-paid phone by calling his main cellphone, and it took a little while for it to start ringing. Once the other phone did ring, he ended the call without completing the connection.

Thinking he would be charged only if the call were completed, McQuillin was shocked to find that he’d been billed $0.10 for the call.

With the iPad 2 finally available, do other tablets stand a chance?

Last week, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps made the assertion that although this year’s non-Apple tablet offerings are “solid products,” they have “fatally flawed product strategies.”

The post called out iPad 2 contenders like the BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchPad, as well as Android Honeycomb tablets by manufacturers such as Toshiba and Motorola.

This is the UN01 case for the iPhone 4, and it’s only function (apart from protection) is to make the phone look like a camera by adding an annoying lens-shaped bulge in the middle.

Actually, that’s not quite true. You can also thread a lanyard, neck strap (included) or or wrist strap through a couple of those fiddly corner holes you find on cheap phones and MP3 players.

Gadget Lab Notes is an eclectic roundup of gadget news briefs and intriguing products that catch our eye.

Phosphor Reveal Wristwatches Ditch E Ink for Swarovski Crystals
Phosphor, a wristwatch maker that normally sticks with minimalist E Ink clock faces, has taken a turn for the shiny with their latest line. Using a low power “proprietary Micro-Magnetic Mechanical Digital technology”, colored Swarovski crystals are rotated around to display the time.