Hasta La Gadget!

After a near seven year run, Verizon will be pulling the plug on its mobile video service on December 15th. The decision to shelve its in-house media platform lines up with the company’s recent decision to deep-six its app store at the beginning of next year — due to the recent influx of modern third-party software solutions. Hoping to fill the void for V Cast Video castaways, Verizon will continue to push its Viewdini platform, which sniffs out content across multiple services, such as Hulu Plus, ABC, Netflix and mSpot. For those of you looking to maintain your mobile football fix, Big Red will provide coverage through its NFL Mobile service at a cost of $5 per month. The soon to be defunct video service is currently a part of the carrier’s paid smartphone App Pack bundle, which will continue operating after the program’s demise. For more information about Verizon’s post-V Cast plans, visit the source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Verizon

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Via: All Things D

Source: Verizon

If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, another carrier revealed a shift to shared data plans, Sprint introduced new LTE markets with help from a regional partner and a Verizon MVNO debuted a new smartphone plan — if only it could say the same for its phones. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of November 26th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of November 26th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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The Engadget Mobile Podcast says fuhgeddaboutit to the traditional two-hour limit on technology podcasts yet again as they sail through new operating systems and iterated operating systems, phones in high demand and phones in low demand, and cameraphones that just are breaking away from their phone roots: it’s another week of cellular synergy curated precisely for your ears.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Guest: Joseph Volpe
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Tycho – Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

00:02:05 – Nokia Lumia 822 review: the pride of Espoo returns to Verizon Wireless
00:41:18 – Jolla’s Sailfish OS promises multitasking, personalization and ‘effortless interaction’ (updated)
01:06:40 – Microsoft pegs Windows Phone 7.8 update for early 2013 arrival
01:37:45 – Setting aside the smartphone: two weeks with Samsung’s Galaxy Camera
01:50:17 – Nokia imaging head Damian Dinning makes ‘personal decision’ to leave the company
01:53:55 – Huzzah! Some Nexus 4 orders shipping this week, says Google

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Filed under: Podcasts, Mobile

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The European LTE landscape is unfortunately a fragmented one that favors large countries with large carriers. We can chalk up at least one victory for the smaller nation states, however: Switzerland is getting its first LTE network on November 29th. The country’s main provider, Swisscom, is launching initial 4G coverage in 26 cities and regions using the LTE-equipped HTC One X (One XL abroad), quickly following up with the early December availability of the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II and Nokia Lumia 920. A Huawei USB stick and a ZTE hotspot will also be on tap. Customers won’t need to spring for a new plan to use the new network on a basic level, although Swisscom’s uncommon speed-based phone plans mean they’ll be paying a stiff 169 francs ($181) per month to max out the 4G network. We imagine at least some will bite if it means speedy data in Zurich.

[Thanks, Joël]

Continue reading Swisscom rolls out first LTE in Switzerland on November 29th

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, HTC, Nokia

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Source: Swisscom

There’s no question that RIM knows how key attracting as much developer support as possible will be to its upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform, and that’s where its focus seems to be at the BlackBerry Jam Asia event in Bangkok. CrackBerry‘s live blog notes that RIM has announced a new name for its store, going from BlackBerry App World to just BlackBerry World (likely due to its dedicated sections for music, movies and TV shows) as well as a number of regional partners pledging support for the platform like Baidu, Kantana and Fox Sports. Another feature shown off at the event was the ability of its keyboard handle multiple languages and prediction within a single conversation. It also celebrated the success of a recent port-a-thon event, continuing to tout the ease with which devs can bring their projects from iOS and Android to BlackBerry 10.

The SDK gold release is scheduled for December 11th with all the APIs necessary, and developers can register for that $10,000 Built For BlackBerry incentive guarantee starting today ahead of the January 21st deadline. While you’re signing up for that, BlackBerry app makers who want to try out the new hotness on a device with a physical keyboard should sign up for a Dev Alpha C unit. After passing out 7,500 Dev Alpha units since May, its promising these to the top 1,500 people who sign up, have submitted two apps or more and are ranked by score based on certain other developer activities. Also, those original 7,500 can sign up to swap their Dev Alpha for Limited Edition BlackBerry 10 hardware after launch. Counting 60 million active BBM customers in Asia and claiming it’s both the largest and fastest growing segment there we expect to see continued focus from RIM there, as of now we’re only a couple months away from finding out how the world reacts to BlackBerry 10.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, RIM

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Source: CrackBerry, Research in Motion (Twitter), Dev Alpha C