Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T has been upping its 4G LTE game recently and today it announced that the service is being made available to 14 new markets. This brings the total of markets where AT&T 4G LTE is avaialble to 175, meaning that the carrier now has the second largest LTE coverage net in the U.S. More than 170 million people are now covered by AT&T 4G LTE and the carrier expects to cover 300 million people by the end of 2014. The 14 new markets include:

• Beaumont, TX
• Binghamton, NY
• Carbondale-Marion, IL
• Fort Pierce, FL
• Fort Smith, AR
• Fresno, CA
• Houma, LA
• Jefferson City, MO
• Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
• Las Cruces, NM
• Montgomery, AL
• Mount Vernon, WA
• Palm Coast, FL
• Temple-Killeen, TX

Verizon is providing 4G LTE is the most markets right now, 486 to be exact, covering 273 million people. On the other hand, T-Mobile has recently announced their 4G LTE service that has currently been made available in only 7 markets. AT&T has also been heavily investing to improve user experience, as evident from the new cell cites it plans to erect in downtown San Francisco. The battle for 4G LTE supremacy in the US gets a little more interesting.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: New Chrome For Android Update Brings Password Syncing, Twitter For Android Version 4.0 Released With New Look And Feel,

Here comes the LG Optimus F5 for the United States, folks, named LG Lucid2 and available from Verizon with 4G LTE and wireless charging to boot! This smartphone is made to be your one-stop-shop for mid-range greatness, complete with a 4.3-inch qHD IPS LCD display, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean (with LG’s modifications) right out of the box, and a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor! This smartphone is also completely free with a 2-year contract signed up with Verizon starting on April 4th.

You’ll find this machine humming along nicely with 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot for storage expansion. If you’re all about the wireless charging, you’ll have to make sure you pick up the separate removable battery cover – that’ll cost you $40 USD. This will pair nicely with your wireless charging dock, both this and that being bits and pieces we’ll be reviewing for you later this week!

Above you’ll see a bit more of the LG Optimus F5 as we saw it earlier this year at Mobile World Congress 2013. There in Barcelona we saw LG bringing the fight to multiple display sizes with iterations of devices in this Optimus wave all ready to be LG’s 2013 front. You’ll see not only LG’s custom user interface, but another showing of LG’s own Starter Mode – made perfect for those using a smartphone for the first time.

You’ll be able to purchase this device online on the 4th of April while this device’s retail appearance will be at least one or two more weeks away. Let us know what you’d like to know about this device right now!

LG Lucid2 hits Verizon: free wireless charging wonder is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The original LG Lucid came to Verizon just a little over a year ago as a midrange device, and today we got word that its sequel, the Lucid2 (VS870), is now ready to show up in similar capacity. Said to be Big Red’s version of the LG Optimus F5, the device is aimed at the first-time smartphone buyer and is available online for free (with a two-year commitment) beginning April 4th, while retail availability will be in the coming weeks. Among its boasted features are a Starter Mode with a simplified UI — much like what we’ve seen on Pantech phones recently — as well as a 5MP rear camera, 4.3-inch qHD IPS display, 2,460mAh battery, Android 4.1.2, unspecified 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. Wireless charging will also be available if you purchase a separate battery cover for $40. Hit the press release below for more specs and details.

Note: The press release gives two online availability dates (today and April 4th) but LG has confirmed to us that the former is simply a typo.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Verizon, LG

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If you thought yesterday’s April Fool’s Day mess of rumors was hard to swallow, you’re really going to have a difficult time with this tip: Verizon and AT&T have been reported to be jointly buying Vodafone. This absolutely wild possibility comes from The Financial Time’s Alphaville where they’ve got what they say are “usually reliable people” suggesting a “breakup bid” for Vodafone between AT&T and Verizon. It’s also been said that such a purchase would include a 40% premium on Vodafone’s current stock price, this giving the company an enterprise value of right around $245 billion USD.

If such a deal would be made, it’d be the single largest M&A value (Mergers & Acquisitions, that is) of all time. The previous holder of said record was the AOL takeover of Time Warner back in 2000, that deal racking up a cool $182 billion USD. The same source speaking with Alphaville has suggested that Barclays US is working out the possibilities for a potential transaction, the current deal being the following.

“Barclays US has been tasked with putting together the potential transaction, the usually reliable people claim. The basic idea would be that Verizon buys Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in their Verizon Wireless joint venture while AT&T takes the non-US assets.” – Alphaville

Other than this basic set of notes and some analysis, it would appear that there’s been no evidence that these companies will actually go through with said deal. We’ll continue to keep our eye on the situation and you’ll know as soon as we know – stay tuned to SlashGear for more!

UPDATE: An update from Dealreporter (through Alphaville) says that Verizon “is not involved in a reported bid for UK telecom company Vodafone.” Of course their note also comes from “a person familiar with the matter” as no representation from any of the three companies supposedly involved has yet come forward with a statement.

Have a peek at the timeline below for additional puzzle pieces leading to today’s oddity and let us know if you have any insight you’d like to lend!

Verizon and AT&T tipped for joint Vodafone bid [UPDATE] is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It seems that the HTC Droid DNA simply loves to play hide and seek, as it was as recent as a couple of days ago that Verizon’s website no longer depicted the HTC Droid DNA, with sales representative of the mobile carrier citing the reason behind that is simple – the HTC Droid DNA has been “retired”, because of an upcoming device, which many folks have deemed it to be the HTC One, which is the latest flagship smartphone from the Taiwanese company.

Well, no sooner than that, it seems that the HTC Droid DNA has returned back to the site, showing that there are available units for purchase. GottaBeMobile claims that the SKU has changed though, which points to a slightly altered unit. The thing is, the hardware specifications listed did not seem to go through any kind of changes, so what gives? Could this be due to a restocking issue that was resolved soon enough that hardly enough people noticed? Perhaps this means the HTC One will not be making its way over to Verizon. What do you think?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: AT&T HTC One 32GB Pre-orders At $249 Begin This Week, iPhone 5 Promotional Material Reaching T-Mobile Stores,