Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has a tradition of timing FCC filings for new wireless mobile devices so that they appear just as soon as they’ve been announced, and it’s not about to let up now. We’ve got a trifecta of approvals on the way for 2012 that start with the iPhone 5. What’s hard to miss is the absurd number of cellular bands at work: as Apple had to make separate iPhone 5 models to cover every LTE carrier it supports, on top of the usual alphabet soups for CDMA and GSM, the filing combining the two devices is one of the largest we’ve seen to date. The addition of 5GHz WiFi support only compounds the situation.

A pair of iPods also made their appearances today, and they’ve been given the regulatory once-over as well. The iPod touch has the 5GHz WiFi band included and isn’t special by itself, but the new iPod nano is noteworthy simply for showing up at all — the inclusion of Bluetooth means a spin past the testing facility in addition to some wireless audio. We’re still digging to see if the iPhone or new iPods have any surprises, although you can have a first-hand look through the source links.

Brad Molen contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Mobile

iPhone 5, updated iPod touch and iPod nano models reach the FCC right on cue originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alltel customers brought under the Verizon umbrella have been getting more and more signals that it’s time to let go of that legacy phone. The latest red flag is a letter that Droid-Life understands is making its way to holdout customers. According to one copy, Verizon will start shutting down the remnants of Alltel’s data service on or near January 10th, 2013. Alltel’s mobile data should be completely inert after April that year — and those still clinging to the past will be down to basic phone calls and SMS until they get Verizon-blessed devices. At least corporate customers are getting incentives to cross the divide, so you can’t accuse Verizon of forgetting to use the carrot along with the stick. We’ll admit that we aren’t exactly mourning the eventual loss ourselves: customers by that point will have had four years to make the leap, which in this era can feel like an eternity.

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon may cut what’s left of Alltel data starting January 10th, 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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