AT&T expanding HSPA+ rollout this year, launching LTE in mid-2011

It’s a good day for next-gen network news, apparently — first Verizon promised to bring its 4G network to 30 NFL cities by the end of the year, and now AT&T’s John Stankey says its LTE network will arrive by mid-2011. Trials are already underway in Baltimore and Dallas, and Ma Bell’s pulled some $700 million out of the kitty to fund the buildout, with investment scheduled to go “far beyond that” next year. On top of that, AT&T is also working to upgrade its backhaul connections for its current HSPA 7.2 3G sites to Gigabit Ethernet, and it’s planning to upgrade the vast majority of its 3G sites to HSPA+ for real-world 7Mbps 3G download speeds sometime this year — a seemingly big expansion from the “certain locations” we’d been promised earlier. Why the change? We don’t know exactly, but AT&T is quick to point out that LTE customers will fall back to 3G quite often in the early days, and that Verizon isn’t investing in 3G speeds at all anymore — an interesting claim and potentially a major differentiator if the HSPA+ rollout is completed quickly, but one that won’t matter if Verizon’s network offers sufficient coverage. We’ll see — looks like the next year is going to be mighty interesting.

AT&T expanding HSPA+ rollout this year, launching LTE in mid-2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lexus-Crave Retweet sweepstakes: Win Bose headphones!

In the second week of the Lexus-Crave Retweet sweepstakes, we’re giving away a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones to one lucky winner.

Samsung to officially launch Galaxy Tab in NYC

Alongside a Media Hub service for TV show and movie rentals and purchases, the electronics maker is expected to offer more details on its iPad competitor tonight at an event. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20016699-266.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Signal Strength/a/p

How To Pick A Kindle Case

Cole Haan Leather Cover for Kindle 3. Photo from Amazon.com

Q: I love my new Kindle 3, but I’m always worried that I’m going to knock a cup of coffee on it, or that my son will use it as a Frisbee. Are there any good cases you would recommend? — Anxious in Akron

A: Akron, I’m in much the same situation with my own Kindle. The device itself seems sturdy enough, but I always have this irrational fear that the beautiful but curiously-static screensavers of famous authors are staring at me, or through me, with their cold, dead E Ink eyes, beckoning me to read their books. Unfortunately, all of the Kindle cases I’ve seen and tried have some serious drawbacks.

Let’s start with the cases available from the Amazon Store. Most of the cases they sell are still for the second-generation Kindle, which won’t fit your device; you just have to ignore those entirely. In the left-hand sidebar you can pick your Kindle model, and you’ll only see relevant results.

Amazon Lighted Leather Cover, from Amazon.com

Amazon itself makes two cases for the Kindle that are basically identical: they’re both leather and come in a range of colors, with a microsuede interior and straps and hinges to keep your reader from sliding around or worse, out. The basic model is $35; add an on-board light, and the whole package costs $60.

Now, when the Kindle cost $400, springing $35-$60 for a decent-quality case and $50 for a two-year warranty had a kind of logic to it. But I don’t remember the woman from the new Kindle poolside ad leaning over and saying: “It’s a Kindle. $139. I paid about as much for the case and the warranty on it.” That would be a really stupid commercial.

Even my friends who love their Kindle cases and want to wrap their beloved e-readers in the best have problems with Amazon’s cases. Everyone agrees that the light on the $60 case can be useful, especially outdoors at dusk and occasionally in bed at nighttime. Everyone also agrees that it adds a lot of weight to the overall package, turning the light-as-a-feather e-reader into a clumsy hardcover.

That leaves you with two options: go for broke with a high-end case, or actually be broke and find something cheap and easy. The Cole Haan Hand-Stained Pebble-Grained Leather Kindle Case costs $99, and has a great rep carried over from its much-loved Kindle 2 cases. But Amazon reviewers complain that Cole Haan skimped on strength and quality to get its case out in time for the Kindle 3 launch.

Apparently the Kindle 2 case had an extra patch of leather strengthening the spine, that added extra protection and made the Kindle in the Cole Haan case feel like a high-quality book. The company’s Kindle 3 case is just one-ply, making the spine less stiff and more likely to wear with use. At other price points, that might be forgivable, but $100 is enough to nudge loyal users into the angry zone.

The longer the Kindle 3 is out, the more manufacturers begin releasing cases for it. Belkin has a line of sleeves available on the Amazon store now that I don’t think were there when I started researching this last week. In particular, many companies are starting to sell sleeves, not cases, that cost around $20.

However, if you’re plan to go this route, the best tip of all comes from Instpaper’s Marco Arment. In his first look at the Kindle 3, he notes how the Kindle 3’s rubberized back (as opposed to the earlier version’s slick aluminum) and slightly-smaller size makes it the first iteration to be comfortably used without a case. As for a sleeve, his solution is ingenious:

Photo credit/permission courtesy Marco Arment at Marco.org

A standard 6×10 bubble envelope — the size you’d use for shipping a DVD in a case — actually makes a decent low-budget Kindle 3 slipcase. And if your goal is to just throw it in a bag and have basic scratch protection until you remove it for use, it’s a pretty good solution.

Not bad at all. Next thing you know, those envelopes will be available in nano-patterned Naugahyde for $19.95.

In time, the marketplace will catch up, prices will (I have to believe) start to come down, and we’ll get more variety and usability out of our Kindle 3 cases. In the meantime, give one of these a whirl, preferably without putting down hard money first. If they don’t work for you, you can always go back to barebacking it.

P.S.: If you’ve hacked together your own Kindle/e-Reader/tablet case solution. I’d love to read about it in the comments. Share the love!

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ViewSonic outs 10-inch G Tablet: Android 2.2, NVIDIA Tegra 2 on the inside

Don’t blink — you might just mistake ViewSonic‘s new G Tablet for the ViewPad that we handled back at IFA. This guy, however, packs a very different list of internal specifications in a 10-inch tablet form factor that’s beginning to look all too familiar. Showcased for the first time last night in New York City, this guy dumps Intel’s Atom in favor of NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, and rather than booting a pair of operating systems, it relies solely on Android 2.2 — a mobile OS that Google has specifically said isn’t tailored for use on slates. At any rate, there’s also 1GB of RAM, a 1024 x 600 resolution panel, USB / HDMI, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, 16GB of storage, a 1.3 megapixel camera and a chassis that measures 9.96- x 6.5- x 0.5-inches. We’re told that it handled 1080p media without any trouble, and while the capacitive touchpanel was deemed “beautiful,” the ultra glossy coating will certainly turn off those who plan to visit the great outdoors. It’s expected to hit shelves in October with a lofty $529 retail price, and with that, we’ll simply wish it the best of luck and point you to the video past the break.

Continue reading ViewSonic outs 10-inch G Tablet: Android 2.2, NVIDIA Tegra 2 on the inside

ViewSonic outs 10-inch G Tablet: Android 2.2, NVIDIA Tegra 2 on the inside originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony announces quartet of low-cost car stereos

Sony has added four new single-DIN in-dash receivers to its Xplod line of car audio equipment. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20016619-48.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Car Tech blog/a/p

Microsoft employee profile hints at possible Acer Windows Phone 7 device

Well, this is certainly curious. What you’re looking at above is a snippet from the LinkedIn profile for a Microsoft Hardware Program Manager who seems to have not only worked on Windows Phone 7 devices from ASUS, LG and Samsung, but one from Acer as well — the same Acer that’s so far been out of the Windows Phone 7 mix. Just as curious is the fact that the device in question is the Acer M900, which actually started out life as a Windows Mobile phone before morphing into the Android-based InstintQ / Moment — could another shift (or revision, perhaps) be in store? Of course, this is still far from an official confirmation, and it also simply mean that Acer had worked on a WP7 device but ultimately abandoned the idea. Either way, it would be the first time that a bit of Windows Phone 7 news leaked out on LinkedIn.

Microsoft employee profile hints at possible Acer Windows Phone 7 device originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feline-powered humidifier pales in comparison to Alice B. Toklas’ catnip brownies

I know what you’re thinking — how can you combine the awesome power of electrical generation with the subtle charms of your housecat? The Wool Ball hybrid humidifier, designed by a certain Yuan Gu for the Chinese firm Yadu, gets its power from the playful swipes of your pet — or from a wall socket, if your tabby is as lazy as ours. There’s no telling when this one will make it to market, but sometimes gadgets are better in the abstract anyways.

Feline-powered humidifier pales in comparison to Alice B. Toklas’ catnip brownies originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Inhabitat  |  sourceCoroflot  | Email this | Comments

The Best Speakers Under $2,000 [Speakers]

You know who knows speakers? Audiogon, the high-end audio community knows speakers. So we asked them if it was possible to get kick-ass sound for under two G’s. Their answer: a turned-up-to-eleven, room-shaking YES. More »

Motorola Grasp goes to U.S. Cellular

Motorola and U.S. Cellular announce the Grasp messaging phone. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20016691-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p