Just hours before Apple’s WWDC keynote, AT&T has launched its Enhanced Push-to-Talk service on the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S, bringing walkie-talkie-esque capabilities to the iPhone for the first time. The new feature will be available in app form that business customers will be able to download and install. Push-to-talk is available on select devices
The big US carriers tend to echo each other’s customer-hostile policy decisions all too often, and that’s unfortunately happening once again. Effective today, AT&T is shadowing Verizon by extending its standard device upgrade interval from 20 months to the full two years of a typical agreement. All of its new contract subscribers, as well as those whose terms finish in March or later, will have to cope with the longer waiting periods. There’s little context for the decision in a corporate memo that we’ve obtained; we’ve reached out to AT&T for some background, and we’ll let you know if we hear more. Whatever the motivations, it’s clearer than ever that habitual upgraders need to either pay the full hardware price or move to more flexible providers.
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T
Source: AT&T
Softbank and Sprint have been on pins and needles ever since January, when the US Department of Justice asked the FCC to delay the carriers’ merger as it scrutinized the deal over national security concerns. The two networks can breathe a little easier this weekend, as the DOJ just dropped its request for more time. There’s “no objection” to the acquisition following a review, the agency says. Not that the companies are completely out of the woods: the FCC has to approve the buyout, and there’s still the small matters of Dish’s bids for both Sprint and Clearwire. Softbank may not want to drop its backup plan just yet.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Via: Computerworld
Source: FCC (PDF)
Controversial phone record collecting by Verizon on behalf of the National Security Agency has been defended by the White House, with an unofficial comment from the Obama administration describing such data as “a critical tool” against terrorism. Reports that Verizon had handed over swathes of telephone records broke this week, with the carrier apparently ordered
4G carrier EE has announced the UK’s first shared plans, following US carriers in offering agreements which can be spread across multiple phones, tablets, and even different users. The Shared 4GEE Plans, which will be detailed “in the coming weeks” according to the carrier, come alongside a new set of pay-as-you-go mobile broadband plans for
AT&T is moving quickly to spread out its 4G LTE service to customers in the US, and while they’re still behind Verizon‘s dominance in LTE coverage, you have to admire Ma Bell’s efforts to getting its 4G network up to full strength. The carrier announced that they dumped their 4G LTE network onto 22 markets
Sure, cellphones for those who have issues with sight aren’t new, but Odin Mobile is aiming to be the very first US mobile carrier specifically tailored to improve accessibility for the visually impaired. When it launches in late July, the T-Mobile MVNO will offer Qualcomm’s Ray low vision-friendly smartphone for $300 — which is slated to arrive at Amazon on June 6th — and more affordable handsets from Emporia. Odin Mobile also plans to send user guides in Word format and HTML via email, and promises that its customer support team will know the ins and outs of the accessibility features in its phones. As if that weren’t enough, the firm vows to donate two percent of its revenue from voice and text services to organizations that help the visually impaired. Head past the break for the press release or hit the source link to peruse the company’s devices and plans.
Source: Odin Mobile
A 4G cellphone with no monthly bills whatsoever is the latest attempt by MVNO FreedomPop to disrupt the mobile industry, using VoIP to offer select Android users calls, messaging, and data without the traditional cost. The new service, which is expected to launch later in the summer, will be the first to shuttle all calls
It’s no surprise, really. Offline devices just don’t carry the allure that they once did, and in fact, yours truly would argue that they simply lack the requisite functionality to become runaway hits in the modern era. It’s genuinely difficult to think of a flagship consumer electronics product, with a display of any kind, being engineered in the year 2013 without at least some level of internet connectivity in mind. Even a Kickstarter dream dubbed Pebble would be borderline useless without an online link, and as consumer demands shift dramatically towards expecting more for less, it’s the carriers who have found themselves positioned to take advantage.
Verizon has joined a host of other megacorps in launching so-called innovation centers across the world. Earlier this year, Samsung committed $1.1 billion to create a pair of Open Innovation Centers — temporary homes for upstarts looking to woo Sammy’s check writers into believing in their technology. In 2011, AT&T’s Palo Alto, Calif.-based Foundry innovation center joined similar entities already running in Texas and Israel. In a nutshell, these facilities exist solely to ensure that pretty much everything with a circuit board also ships with an AT&T radio. Microsoft, Intel and Vodafone have all done likewise in the past three years.
I recently had the opportunity to visit Verizon’s first Innovation Center — a sprawling facility located squarely in Massachusetts’ famed Route 128 technology corridor. The center opened in Waltham in the middle of 2011, and now enables roughly 25 employees to “largely operate outside” of what you probably associate with the word “Verizon.” What I found was the world’s greatest case against the existence of a “dumb pipe” — a phrase often used to describe carriers that do little more than provide access to a network. No structured technical support, no humans on the other side, no bloatware on the devices they sell. Companies who show up looking for aid in the art of interconnectedness face no fees, no risk of surrendering intellectual property and no requirements of exclusivity. This is the future of the wireless carrier: an increasingly vital component in making tomorrow’s whiz-bang gadget one that this generation will actually crave.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Verizon
Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 Mini, announced earlier today, will be offered in LTE form in the UK, it’s been confirmed. The new, smaller iteration of the flagship Galaxy S 4 would be offered in three forms depending on market, Samsung had said today, with 3G, dual-SIM 3G, and 4G variants; now, the UK’s only current 4G carrier, EE, has weighed in with confirmation that it will be offering the smartphone.
“We can confirm we plan to stock the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini from launch” an EE spokesperson told us today. “It will be available on our superfast 4GEE service.” Meanwhile, the phone will also be available on 3G-only networks Orange and T-Mobile, which are part of the combined EE network.
Although it shares the name of the Galaxy S 4, the Mini version does make some significant departures from that handset’s flagship specifications. For instance, the 4.3-inch display runs at just qHD resolution – 960 x 540 – rather than the 1920 x 1080 of the full-sized phone. Inside, too, there’s a compromise to be made, with the Galaxy S4 Mini running a 1.7GHz dualcore chip rather than the quadcore of its bigger brother.
The camera also sees a compromise, mustering 8-megapixels rather than 13-megapixels. A single storage option has been confirmed at this stage – just 8GB, of which around 5GB is available to the user – though there’s still a microSD slot to add to that. It’s worth remembering that apps can’t be installed to microSD, however.
What none of the networks are saying is how much the Galaxy S4 Mini will cost, nor indeed when exactly it will hit their shelves. Those details may have to wait until Samsung’s “Premiere 2013″ event in late June, when the Mini will be one of a number of new devices – running both Android and Windows – we’re expecting to see.
Galaxy S4 Mini will support UK LTE confirms EE is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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