Hasta La Gadget!

Look, if you buy a carrier-branded Android handset, you should know good and well that you may never see the first Android update. It ain’t easy to hear, but as mama always said, the truth ain’t always painless. That said, there’s still some research you should do before picking a phone and carrier, and ComputerWorld has seemingly done just that for you. The methodology is all explained down in the source link, but the long and short of it is this: in the last half of 2010, Verizon upgraded 33 percent of its sub-2.2 phones to Froyo, while Sprint updated just 28.6 percent of its stable and T-Mobile blessed only 12.5 percent of its phones with the new digs. AT&T bashers should take note, as Ma Bell didn’t update a single one of its nine Android phones during the June-December 2010 time period. Yeah, ouch. Over on the handset side, we’ve got HTC gifting half of its devices with Froyo, while Motorola comes in second with 15.4 percent and Samsung third with 11.1 percent. No matter how you slice it, it’s a depressing study to look at, and it probably makes your decision to skip over a Nexus One seem all the more idiotic in retrospect. But hey, at least there’s the Nexus S to console you… if you’re willing to sign up with T-Mob, that is.

Study: Verizon Wireless and HTC most eager to provide Android 2.2 updates originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We do hate to play into wily PR folks’ attention-grabbing campaigns, but when they’re quite so nutty, we can’t help but admire them. UK network Three is trying to promote its hotspots (we think) by having dudes wearing full-body underwear running around with “Human Hotspot” signs and what looks like part of the Engadget logo throughout London. We don’t get it, but we do love it.

Thomas: “I can look up your WEP.”
Vlad: “Please note, dressing up as a Trojan won’t protect you from actual trojans.”
Nilay: “Touch my junk and I’ll have you arrested.”
Darren: “I’m probably working… even if the tube drivers aren’t.”
Richard Lai: “My SSID is quite well hidden, if I may say so.”
Carlos: “I’m hot… or not?”
Tim: “I knew that Fantastic Four movie was a bad career move. Time for a new agent.”
Ross: “Ask about where I keep my SIM card.”
Myriam: “Spot the hotness.”
Sam: “The Blue Man Group member that never was.”
Josh T.: “Due to his drug habit and carousing, the Invisible Man had been forced into a number of demeaning jobs.”

Continue reading Caption contest: publicity stunt generating publicity

Caption contest: publicity stunt generating publicity originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We suspected T-Mobile’s new advertising campaign would ruffle some feathers, but we weren’t ready for quite such brazen trash-talking right off the bat. Of course, it’s trash talk dressed up in a pretty white and Magenta dress and delivered in the most angelic of voices, but T-Mobile makes its point to AT&T subscribers loud and clear: we got 4G, you don’t. Whether you consider the network’s current 21Mbps theoretical max a true representation of 4G or not, we’ll leave up to you; just make sure to join us past the break for the Apple-scented commercial, which also teases the myTouch 4G, a HSPA+ handset that T-Mobile happens to be launching today.

Update: AT&T isn’t taking this one lying down. It countered with the following statement this afternoon: “T-Mobile’s claims about 4G are based on the same HSPA+ technology we have deployed to 180 million people today, more than T-Mobile’s reported 140 million, and we’ll have it rolled out to 250 million people by the end of this month, substantially more than the 200 million T-Mobile says it will have by year-end.”

Continue reading T-Mobile starts up 4G ad campaign by poking a stiletto into AT&T’s network (video)

T-Mobile starts up 4G ad campaign by poking a stiletto into AT&T’s network (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 05:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s balance sheet just keeps looking happier and happier every quarter. In spite of the company’s somewhat questionable hardware choices — such as picking the ugly option from both Samsung‘s and LG‘s Windows Phone 7 platters — it now proudly boasts a total of 92.8 million active wireless service lines. This comes off the back of a 2.6 million net subscriber gain over the third quarter of 2010, a record for this period of the year. Churn, or the rate at which people left AT&T, was also at at its best ever for the quarter, coming in at a lowly 1.32 percent, while postpaid integrated device (read: smartphone on a contract) activations reached above the eight million mark. Total net profit was $12.3 billion, thanks to the sale of Sterling Commerce and a one-off tax adjustment, but in cashflow terms the company made $4.0b in the quarter. That’s a lot of dinero, no doubt aided by Q3 being the first full reporting period after the iPhone 4’s launch, we just wish some of AT&T’s other phones weren’t quite so unappealing.

Continue reading AT&T clocks up 2.6 million net new wireless subscribers, bigger profits in Q3

AT&T clocks up 2.6 million net new wireless subscribers, bigger profits in Q3 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T told us back in July that it was fixing to launch the first carrier-provided two factor encryption service, and it seems that today’s the day. The day it goes live, we mean. At any rate, the company’s Encrypted Mobile Voice service is reportedly active, and it’s already providing “high-level security features for calls on the AT&T wireless network.” Of course, none of this fancy security is meant for simpletons like us — instead, it’s targeting government agencies, law enforcement organizations, financial services institutions and international businesses. We’re told that the tech combines KoolSpan’s TrustChip and SRA International’s One Vault Voice, with the former being a microSD card and the latter being a software layer. Currently, it only plays nice with BlackBerry and Windows Phones, but until we see Biden bust out a Bravo, we’ll assume the lack of Android support isn’t “a big flipping deal.”

Continue reading AT&T goes live with Encrypted Mobile Voice, kills your dreams of breaking into Pelosi’s social circle

AT&T goes live with Encrypted Mobile Voice, kills your dreams of breaking into Pelosi’s social circle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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