Hasta La Gadget!

You’ve already read our review and you’re still convinced you need Samsung’s latest Galaxy S smartphone as soon as humanly possible, eh? Well if you’re on Verizon (or you’d like to be), the Galaxy S 4 goes up for pre-order starting tomorrow according to a tweet from Verizon’s Twitter account. Of course, when you’ll get it is another question altogether — last we heard was “sometime in May,” so take that as you will. May is pretty soon, right? In any case, you won’t immediately be able to purchase the GS 4 anywhere: Sprint is reporting delays until some unknown date, while T-Mo-‘s version isn’t arriving until April 29. Meanwhile, AT&T is still planning for an April 25th launch for pre-order customers, and in-store on April 27th.

Update: Verizon PR rep Ken Muche has also confirmed on Twitter that the phone will run $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on the usual two-year contract.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon

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Source: Twitter – @VZWnews

Earlier today at its Innovation Center in Waltham, Mass., Verizon announced that it will be expanding its Innovation Center located in San Francisco, which is a smaller, newer version of its New England sibling. In addition, the carrier’s Vice President of Network Support spoke about Verizon’s LTE network and HD Voice, stating that it plans to have handsets with HD Voice support available later this year, and will then move towards making it cross-carrier.

Regarding the expansion of the Innovation Center in San Francisco, Engadget reports that the carrier plans to boost it to something more akin to its New England-based center. In addition, Verizon also wants to roll out more Innovation Centers, cited as saying that it has three or four big cities in mind, but that it’s focusing on its existing centers for now. The possible locations of the new centers weren’t specified.

In addition, the carrier’s Network Support vice president Mike Haberman said that Verizon’s ambitious and rather fast-paced rollout of its LTE network, as well as its plans for HD Voice, are still going strong and as planned. Most of its LTE rollouts will be “substantially done” by the middle of this year. Over half of Verizon’s network traffic – 54-percent – is delivered via 4G.

And that, naturally, leads into questions about the carrier’s HD Voice plans, and when users will be able to take advantage of the technology. Speaking on that, Haberman said that Verizon is testing high-definition voice at the present moment, and that the technology is “working in the network right now.” He says he expects HD Voice-capable handsets to be readied this year, and for it all to go public in early 2014. He also mentions that Verizon is looking at eventually making HD Voice cross-carrier.

[via Engadget]

Verizon reveals plans to expand San Francisco Innovation Center is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

2011 sure doesn’t feel like that long ago, but it’s evidently long enough for Verizon to realize that demand for innovation is booming in Silicon Valley. Not quite two years after the company cracked open the doors to its San Francisco-based Innovation Center, it’s already looking to expand. During a briefing today at its other Innovation Center — the one located just outside of Boston — we were told that plans are underway to expand the SF facility. Presently, the Waltham, Mass. center is the vaster of the two, and it’s Verizon’s goal to stretch the California edition to (roughly) match the original location.

We were also told that the company has looked at a variety of other cities where potential Innovation Centers could be planted, and while “three to four” undisclosed metropolises are in play, the company wants to nail the execution of its first two before hastily expanding into new locales. According to Praveen Atreya, director of Verizon’s Innovation Program, there’s just too much involved in the incubation and launch process to not devote the proper amount of manpower to it. In other words, there’s more to launching a product than just design and manufacturing; a lot of TLC goes on in order to make something have a successful shelf life.

Filed under: Cellphones, Networking, Mobile, Verizon

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In a bid to take on the top contenders in the smartphone market this season in the USA, Pantech will be bringing a device by the name of Perception, complete with 3D gesture sensing technology onboard. The Samsung GALAXY S 4 will be in the hands of users by the end of the month on several carriers (and Verizon before Summer begins), it being issued with a technology that allows users to “hover” over their display to activate several features. Pantech’s bid for the 3D sensor trend is being delivered this month with what they call “Motion Sense.”

This Motion Sense technology will be appearing on the Verizon-exclusive smartphone Pantech Perception, this device also including several specifications that push it to the top tier smartphone category. The Pantech Perception includes a 4.8-inch touchscreen with HD Super AMOLED technology, its back features an 8 megapixel camera, and its front uses a 2 megapixel camera. Pantech will be delivering this device with a 16GB bit of internal storage as well.

The 3D sensor technology Motion Sense will allow users to wave their hand over the phone without touching it to activate several features. When the Pantech Perception rings for a phone call, the user will be able to wave their hand over the face (without touching it) to answer said call. Users will also be able to scroll through songs in the smartphone’s basic music app, look through photos, or move through contacts with this new technology.

The Pantech Perception will not be delivered with the most recent version of Google’s mobile operating system Android Jelly Bean. Instead the Perception will be delivered with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with a guarantee from Verizon that it will be upgraded to Jelly Bean “soon”. So says Verizon Wireless representative Albert Aydin along with a note on how this device will be sold for 99 dollars and 99 cents just so long as users agree to 2-year mobile contract and send in a 50 dollar mail-in rebate.

This effort will be appearing in the USA this month, starting no earlier than the 25th day of the month. Have a peek at SlashGear’s Pantech tag portal for more information on what this manufacturer is doing to come in full force to the North American mobile device market with smartphones galore.

Pantech brings 3D gesture control to Verizon in newest smartphone effort is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia looks like it’s hoping to turn up the volume of its Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones in the U.S. by signing another carrier to its cause. Bloomberg is reporting that Nokia and Verizon have struck a deal that will see the carrier offer a forthcoming flagship, the Lumia 928, starting from next month. Neither the deal nor the device have been made public by Nokia or Verizon but Bloomberg said two people familiar with the situation have confirmed the impending launch.

Bloomberg’s report follows previous leaks in which the Lumia 928 was spotted in the FCC’s and Verizon’s systems. An apparent image of the handset was also leaked earlier this month. When approached for comment a Nokia spokesman told TechCrunch it does not comment on rumour and speculation.

If the Verizon deal is true, the Lumia 928 will be the first high end Lumia the carrier has ranged (it does already carry the mid-range Nokia Lumia 822). In the U.S. Lumia devices such as the flagship Lumia 920 have been exclusively carried by AT&T to date. Getting another major carrier — Verizon has some 100 million subscribers – on board with a flagship is vital for the once Mighty Finn to try to capture more cachet, as well as marketshare.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the Lumia device that will launch on Verizon will have a metal body, a 4.5-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera and wireless charging. Earlier rumours have suggested it will have a polycarbonate body, however, while the internals have generally been expected to remain the same as the Lumia 920.

North America has traditionally been a weak market for Nokia — historically, back in the Symbian days, but also since Nokia’s Windows Phone reboot. But in its Q1 results last week, the region was the only market in which Nokia saw a small increase in sales (up by 9%) compared to last year. Nokia reported selling a total of 5.6 million Lumias globally in the quarter.

Kantar stats we covered earlier this month indicate that Windows Phone as a whole — so not just Nokia devices but also HTC, Samsung etc — has moved up into a distant third place in the US smartphone market, behind the two leaders: Android and iOS, suggesting the platform is slowly building some regional momentum. That momentum may have helped convinced Verizon to take a punt on a Lumia flagship.